Weir Group has reported an 18% rise in revenue during the first half of this year, driven by strong demand for mining equipment and spares.
The Glasgow-headquartered engineering company hailed its mitigation of input cost inflation, while maintaining gross margins.
First half adjusted operating profit came in at £168m, up 15% year-on-year.
Production trends and commodity price rises also supported record orders, up 23% during the first six months of 2022.
Sustainable solutions drove equipment demand, up 18% excluding prior year one-off orders.
Weir stated that its order book has grown, with a "robust opportunity pipeline looking forward.
A business process transformation programme was launched during the period, targeting £30m of annualised run-rate savings by 2025. This is aimed at expanding operating margins beyond 17%.
Chief executive Jon Stanton said: “Momentum continued to build through the first half as we won record orders, executed strongly and made meaningful progress in delivering our technology and sustainability roadmaps which underpin our growth and long term strategy.
“Ore production activities, the driver of our highly resilient aftermarket-focused business, were extremely favourable as commodity prices were well above incentive levels and customers ordered Weir solutions to unlock higher production and productivity.
“We enter the second half of the year with a strong order book and are managing through a complex operating environment successfully. As a result, we continue to expect to deliver strong growth in constant currency revenue and profit this year.“
Following the sale of Weir's oil and gas division, 2022 marks the first full year as a business focused solely on mining technology. Stanton described this as an inflection point for the group.
However, he also stated that the current operating environment is complex, driven by rising inflation, bottlenecks in global logistics channels and Covid-19 related disruptions.
“We continue to manage these complexities effectively and have passed through all input cost inflation, maintaining our gross margins.
“From a Covid-19 perspective, we have mitigated the impact of absenteeism and lockdowns, particularly during the first quarter, and the mandatory temporary closure of our ESCO foundry in Xuzhou, China, during April.
“Our vertically integrated regional supply chain has protected us from some of the challenges in global logistics channels, and we have worked hard to ensure our customers have had continued access to mission critical equipment and spare parts to keep mines running,“ he added.
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