Vesuvius shares collapsed more than 10% on Monday after warning that steel and refractories problems have proved worse than flagged in May.
Vesuvius shares retreated sharply on Monday after the metal flow engineer said operational problems in its Steel Division and weak European demand for Advanced Refractories have hit first-half profit harder than it expected two months ago.
Shares in the FTSE 250 group were trading around 405p on Monday morning, down about 10% from Friday’s close of 452p, after falling as low as 396.4p earlier in the session. The stock has traded between 349p and 491.6p over the past year, meaning Monday’s fall has pushed it back toward the bottom half of that range.
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Vesuvius said in a trading update released before markets opened on Monday that trading profit for the first half of 2026 is expected to be around £74m, down from £77m a year earlier. The company blamed continuing operational issues in its Steel Division and a “challenging” trading environment for Advanced Refractories, particularly in Europe. It is the second time in two months that Vesuvius has flagged the same problems: it first disclosed the issues in a trading update on 28 May, but said on Monday the impact had proved bigger than it had anticipated then.
“The operational issues, whilst temporary, are causing a greater impact than previously anticipated,” Vesuvius said. “They are being addressed and are expected to be resolved by the end of the year.” Despite the weaker first half, the company still expects full-year 2026 trading profit to come in slightly ahead of the £151.1m it reported for 2025, on a constant currency basis.
The setback extends a difficult run for Vesuvius, whose 2025 trading profit fell 17% on a like-for-like basis as steel and foundry markets in Europe and the UK weakened. Management had described 2026 as a “transition to recovery” year, banking on cost cuts, contributions from recent acquisitions and modest volume growth to lift profit, with a bigger recovery pencilled in for 2027 as steel trade protection measures take hold.
Analysts have been broadly supportive of Vesuvius despite the volatility. The most recent rating is a Buy with a 520p price target. JPMorgan, which carries a more cautious Neutral rating, raised its target to 440p in April. Monday’s fall leaves the shares well below both levels.
Vesuvius will publish its full half-year results on Thursday, 30 July, when markets will look for more detail on how quickly the Steel Division problems can be resolved and what they mean for margins into 2027. Until then, the scale of Monday’s share price fall suggests the market is treating this as more than a temporary blip.