Late last month, 600 Group plc — a ‘diversified industrial engineering company’ — announced a trading update for its current financial year (ending 28 March).

Executive chairman Paul Dupree said (www.600group.com): “In December, the group reported that it had been experiencing certain macro-economic and political uncertainties across its end markets, particularly in the Far East and automotive markets, with order intake for the fourth quarter expected to be significantly below originally predicted levels.

“Trading conditions have since become more challenging, with the combination of the General Motors strike in USA plants at the end of last year and the suspension of manufacture by Boeing of its 737 MAX in January this year further impacting hundreds of thousands of suppliers across our core industrial markets.

“Order intake in both machine tools and industrial laser systems therefore remains volatile, and two significant projects have been pushed into the next financial year.

“In addition, the coronavirus is causing disruption to shipping from the Far East; and while the group has no significant volume of sales and little direct sourcing from mainland China, the effect of delays to deliveries is pushing sales past the end of the financial year.”

Mr Dupree said that there continues to be good progress regarding UK operations, with orders up over 100% on the previous financial year, adding that contracts have been exchanged for the sale of the Gamet Colchester site.

He went on to say that the results for the full year are now expected to be significantly below the previously revised expectations.

“Despite these major head-winds, the Board continues to believe in the long-term fundamentals of the group, which benefits from a significantly enhanced financial position, and remains optimistic for the future, as it continues to pursue its strategy of de-risking and diversifying the business.”