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Molten metal flow engineering group Vesuvius said its sales in April dropped 28% thanks to the imposition of Covid-19 lockdown measures.
Vesuvius said that as of 1 May, it had reopened operations in South Africa, Malaysia, Argentina and India after their temporary closure.
All of the company's plants were now operational albeit at reduced levels as it aligned with weaker demand and operated with re-configured layouts for social distancing.
Trading in the three months through March had only been marginally up, on-year, reflecting weaker global steel production before the Covid-19 crisis hit.
Vesuvius said it had boosted liquidity by £314m through the issuance of US private placement notes and accessing the UK's Covid corporate financing facility.
The company had last month decided to scrap its 2019 final dividend. 'Whilst the extent of the impact of Covid-19 on our business remains uncertain, we are confident that the measures we have taken to aggressively cut costs and preserve liquidity not only ensure that we can operate through a prolonged downturn but also emerge stronger once end markets recover,' chief executive Patrick Andre said.
At 9:43am: (LON:VSVS) Vesuvius PLC share price was -24.6p at 358.4p