Spirax-Sarco Engineering PLC on Wednesday reported a sales performance in line with the company’s expectations for the first four months of 2022, despite supply chain disruptions.

For the four months to the end of April, the Cheltenham, England-based maker of thermal energy management and pumping systems said organic sales growth was in line with expectations, through the expansion of manufacturing capacity from all three of its businesses, while order books remain at all-time highs due to strong demand exceeding sales.

Spirax-Sarco was holding its annual general meeting on Wednesday. In a statement ahead of the event, the FTSE 100 company reported challenging conditions since the year began, with global supply chain issues, as well as the availability and cost of raw materials.

The group said its Steam Specialties manufacturing facility in Shanghai has been under lockdown restrictions since March 28 and is running a reduced capacity. This is affecting sales in China but is having a limited impact outside of the country.

Looking ahead, Spirax-Sarco said the global macro-economic outlook has weakened since publishing its annual results in March.

Despite this, the company kept its annual guidance for 2022, including for 20% growth in sales to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector by Spirax-Sarco’s Watson-Marlow division, as well as for organic sales growth from the rest of the group to be well above growth in global industrial production, currently forecast at 3.9%.

It said it has ‘very strong order books’.

Spirax-Sarco will publish its annual results on August 11.

Shares in Spirax-Sarco were up 0.6% at 10,905.00 pence on Wednesday morning in London.

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