Vulcan heavily upgrades prospectus earnings forecasts

Newly listed Vulcan Steel traded strongly over the first five months of its financial year. Photo /' File

Newly-listed Australasian steel distributor Vulcan has heavily upgraded its earnings forecasts for the June 2022 year, following stronger-than-expected trading over October and November.

The dual listed company now expects its net profit to come in at A$93-A$100 million, up 26 to 35 per cent on its prospectus forecast of A$74m.

Vulcan said it now expects its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to be in a A$174-$184m range, up 18 to 25 per cent on its prospectus forecast of A$147m.

The company said its overall revenue was up 35 per cent, year-on-year, in the five months to November 30.

Its steel segment revenue lifted 42 per cent year-on-year while its metals segment revenue grew 22 per cent.

Overall sales volume recorded an 11 per cent increase for the same period.

Steel volume lifted 12 per cent while metals volume grew by 7 per cent.

Vulcan noted there will be fewer trading days in the second half of 2022 compared with previous corresponding period in 2021 due to the timing of public holidays and an additional national holiday in New Zealand.

"Trading has been stronger than anticipated and has been broad-based across all our Australasia business units, especially in October and November as Sydney and Melbourne emerged from Covid-19," managing director and chief executive Rhys Jones said.

"As an industrial distributor and value-added processor, we remain confident of our ability to maintain our high service level and product availability to meet the needs of our growing and diverse customer base," Jones said in a statement.

Harbour Asset Management portfolio manager Shane Solly said it was an "impressive" earnings update, given the challenging times for Vulcan's clients.

Shares in Vulcan Steel debuted on the ASX on November 4 at A$7.20 - 10 cents over their A$7.10 offer price.

They closed on the NZX at $8.85, up 47c or 5.6 per cent.