The French industrial cable group Nexans achieved a turnover of 2.06 billion euros in the 1st quarter, up 17% compared to 2021, due to the surge in metal prices, mainly copper which is used to transport electricity.
Excluding price effects, i.e. taking into account a standard price of 5,000 euros per ton of copper, Nexans saw its turnover increase by 6% in the first quarter, to 1.623 billion euros. euros (1660 billion francs) against 1.5 last year, “testifying to the structural strengths of Nexans and sustained demand in all activities”, underlines a press release.
The group, a major consumer of copper, recently announced a refocusing of its strategy on the electrification of the world, linked to the ecological and energy transition.
Linked to this transition, the price of copper, which has exceeded 10,000 dollars per ton on the world markets, remains at the top: it was quoted at 10,219.50 dollars per ton at the end of last week on the London market, the London Metal Exchange (LME).
As a result, in the first quarter, the turnover of the ‘energy production and transmission’ segment of Nexans, which includes the electrification activities and replaces the ‘high voltage and projects’ division, jumped 53% compared to the first three months of 2021, at 229 million euros.
Business benefited from that of the American plant in Charleston, the only submarine high-voltage manufacturing plant in the United States, and that of the group’s two cable ships, Nexans Aurora and Skagerrak, on cabling projects for connecting offshore wind farms to the mainland in Scotland (Seagreen), Crete (Greece) and an interconnection project in the Philippines (Mindanao-Visayas)
The group also obtained a contract to link the Dieppe-Le Tréport offshore wind farm and the installation of the ‘Revolution’ offshore wind project in the United States.
The ‘energy distribution’ sector (formerly ‘territories’) saw its activity increase by 29% in the 1st quarter, to 292 million euros. The ‘energy use’ segment (ex-building) also increased by 23% to 611 million euros thanks in particular to a 70% jump in sales in North America reflecting ‘the boom in demand on the construction’.
The ‘industry and solutions’ activity grew by 13%, driven by ‘sustained demand in the automotive harness and industrial automation markets’. On the other hand, railway infrastructure and equipment fell back with a decline in demand in Asia.
The Nexans group, which operates three factories in Ukraine for the manufacture of automotive harnesses, ‘continued to operate’ in the war-torn country ‘at more than 85% of its nominal capacity’, and the activity ‘has now returned to the normal, which is exceptional given the context of the war,” said Nexans.
The ‘telecommunications and data’ segment saw its turnover increase by 18.6% to 89 million euros, with in particular a leap of more than 40% in submarine telecommunications in the 1st quarter.
The group confirmed its 2022 objectives of achieving gross operating profit (ebitda) “between 500 and 540 million euros and normalized cash generation between 150 and 200 million euros”.
On the Paris Stock Exchange, the Nexans title gained 2.13% Wednesday mid-morning, to 83.80 euros.
The group announced on April 7 the appointment of Chief Financial Officer Jean-Christophe Juillard as Deputy Chief Executive Officer to assist Chief Executive Officer Christopher Guérin in the deployment of Nexans’ 2022-2024 ‘strategic roadmap’.
On April 1, the group also finalized the acquisition of cable manufacturer Centelsa in Latin America.
/ATS