Trading Statement

Vesuvius plc, a global leader in molten metal flow engineering and technology, announces the following update for the period 1 January to 30 April 2025.

Summary

Revenue and trading profit in the period were in line with our expectations

Our end markets remain challenging

Global steel production remained at a low level and declined by 0.8% (World ex China, Iran, Russia and Ukraine) compared to Q1 2024

Foundry end-markets were down c. 8% compared to the first quarter of 2024, however, were stable compared to the fourth quarter of 2024

Revenue was consistent with the comparable period in 2024

We achieved good market share gains in both Steel and Foundry due to our technological differentiation and ongoing investment in R&D

Trading profit was lower compared with the comparable period in 2024, driven by increased raw material costs and labour cost inflation. Price increases are anticipated through the balance of the year, in part, to recover these cost increases

We continue to make strong progress in our structural cost reduction programme and remain on track to deliver at least £45m cost savings by 2028. We continue to maintain tight control on discretionary spend

We are pleased to have completed the acquisition of PiroMet and integration is progressing at pace

We anticipate our full year results to be slightly lower than our previous guidance on a constant currency basis, although the level of uncertainty remains high. This reflects a further slow-down in global industrial activity and the challenge in fully recovering all cost inflation in the current environment

Market trends remain challenging

Steel markets overall (World excluding China, Iran, Russia and Ukraine) remain subdued in Q1 (-0.8% year-on-year). EMEA was particularly weak (-4.2%) and North America was flat (0.0%). India continues to exhibit strong growth (+6.8%) and South-East Asia and South America also grew slightly.

Chinese steel exports remained stable but persistently high at c. 27m tonnes in Q1, representing an increase of 7.6% vs. Q1 2024, although this is broadly stable with the second half run-rate of 2024.

Foundry end-markets were, as expected, considerably lower compared to Q1 2024 reflecting the continual weakening throughout the prior year, although they were broadly stable compared to Q4 2024. Excluding India, all regions saw declines in customer activity with our largest end-markets of EMEA and North America both experiencing a decline of c.10%.

Trading

Year-to-date revenue was stable year on year on a constant currency basis, reflecting modest positive volume progression despite the weak markets. This was offset by a slight selling price decline of 0.5%. Trading profit was broadly in line with our expectations with the strong progress of our structural cost savings programme partially offsetting higher raw material costs and labour cost inflation.

Cashflow

We continue to focus on improving our trade working capital efficiency. The year will reflect the usual seasonal patterns, and we remain confident on achieving our target of 22% (trade working capital / revenue, on a 12-month basis) by the year end. In the period, we completed the second share buy-back programme and the PiroMet acquisition, resulting in cash outflows of £34.8m and £18.5m, respectively.

Outlook

The year has started as we expected, with the announcement of global tariffs by the US administration taking place towards the end of the period under review, the direct impact of which we currently expect to be neutral. However, the wider macroeconomic environment and a further slow-down in global industrial activity coupled with ongoing softness in our end markets may impact our ability to fully recover all cost inflation. We now, therefore, expect trading profit to be slightly lower than FY24 on a constant currency basis, although the level of uncertainty remains high. We remain confident in the strength of our technologically differentiated business model to navigate this near-term uncertainty and in the medium-term opportunities for attractive value creation.

Technical guidance for FY25, update

* YTD 2025 average FX rates to 30 April 2025 applied to YTD April 2024, then 30 April 2025 rates applied for the remaining months

Shares in issue (excluding ESOP and treasury shares) on 30 April 2025: 246.2m

Tax: underlying tax rate of 27.5% as previously guided, plus a one-off tax charge of £3.4m resulting from dividends of £70m remitted from China, with a c. 2-year payback resulting from reduced cost of debt financing

All other line-items of technical guidance given on 6 March 2025 remain unchanged.

CONFERENCE CALL

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Vesuvius plc, 165 Fleet Street, London EC4A 2AE

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