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Plastics manufacturer Victrex has announced its first quarter 2021 was slightly ahead of expectations helped by improvement in some of its end markets but warned of a 'variable' performance.
It reported group revenue of £68.7 million for the first quarter period 1 October to 31 December 2020, 1% ahead of the prior year, while group sales volume of 883 tonnes in the quarter is also 1% ahead of the previous year.
Victrex said that since 1 October 2020, full-year 2021 on a year-to-date basis is slightly lower than the prior year, reflecting January being robust but lower than the prior year.
On a geographic basis, Asia saw the most incremental improvement in the first quarter, with a mixed performance in Europe and the US.
Across its end markets, the company reported that electronics was 'notably strong' as increased homeworking supports demand for a range of smart devices, while performance in automotive, medical and value added-resellers was 'broadly stable' compared to the prior year period.
Aerospace remains challenging in the short term, Victrex said.
Chief executive Jakob Sigurdsson said: 'This is a positive start to FY 2021 and we continue to see incremental improvement across several of our end markets.
'Nevertheless, the incremental improvement trend may remain variable and our assumptions are that we will still see a weaker first half overall, compared to H1 2020 which ended strongly. Consequently, at this early stage, our full-year expectations are unchanged.'
At 8:00am: (LON:VCT) Victrex PLC share price was 0p at 2024p