Hexcel reports net sales of US$478.8 million for Q1, compared to US$497.7 million in the same period of 2016, 3.8% lower than last year.
Commercial Aerospace sales of US$347.2 million were 0.9% lower for the quarter as compared to the first quarter of 2016. While the sales growth of the A350 and the new narrowbodies were in line with expectations, the growth was offset by declines in certain legacy widebody sales (i.e. A380, B777 and B747).
Space & Defense sales of US$76.7 million were 3.3% lower than the first quarter of 2016. Rotorcraft sales comprised just over half of Space & Defense sales, with civil rotorcraft sales remaining at historic low levels and now comprising about 10% of total rotorcraft sales.
Total Industrial sales of US$54.9 million for the first quarter of 2017 were 19.4% lower (16.1% lower in constant currency) than last year, and were just higher than the fourth quarter of 2016. Hexcel says that it expects sales to be more level loaded by quarter in 2017, as sales for the second half of 2016 were nearly 20% lower than the first half of 2016.
Wind energy sales are in for a challenging year and were down more than 25%. However, the company expects wind energy sales in 2018 to exceed 2016 levels, as various legacy blades with lower composite content transition to longer, higher efficiency blades with higher composite content.
Solid results
‘Strong execution and good cost control led to solid results for the first quarter,’ said chairman, CEO and president Nick Stanage. ‘Our adjusted diluted EPS of $0.60 was above last year’s $0.59, on a constant currency sales decrease of 2.6%. Although reductions in certain build rates and customer inventory adjustments lowered sales for the quarter, we are fully committed to meeting our adjusted diluted EPS guidance for the year as we continue to prepare for the production ramp up of new programs, led by Commercial Aerospace. […]
'We now expect Commercial Aerospace sales to be modestly higher compared to 2016 with growth in the A350 and the new narrowbodies mostly offset by reductions in legacy widebody sales. We expect total Space & Defense and Industrial sales to be in line with our initial guidance. In addition, if current exchange rates hold throughout the year, we anticipate total sales to translate approximately 1% lower than our initial guidance. In total, our full year 2017 sales guidance is now $2.0 billion to $2.08 billion (it was previously $2.05 billion to $2.15 billion), as we expect the remaining three quarters of 2017 to be more in line with our initial expectations.’
This story is reprinted from material from Hexcel, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.