(Reuters) - British engineering company Renishaw (LON:RSW) said on Tuesday it expects trading conditions to improve in the second half of this financial year after reporting a 23% fall in interim profit, hurt by weakness in the semiconductor equipment business.
The company, which makes precision measurement equipment used in products ranging from jet engines to smartphones, forecast annual adjusted pre-tax profit in the range of 122 million to 147 million pounds ($153.3 million-$184.7 million). It had reported a profit of 141 million pounds for the previous year.
CEO William Lee said the growth from its industrial metrology products in the Asia Pacific region was offset by weakness in some key sectors, most notably in the semiconductor equipment business.
The company pointed to persistent weak demand for position encoders for semiconductor manufacturing equipment as first-half profit dropped to 56.5 million pounds and revenue slipped 5%.
Renishaw caters to the Americas, EMEA and APAC regions, with its largest manufacturing sites located in the UK, Ireland and India.
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