The firm has released its 15-month financial results for the period ending March 31, 2022, detailing its first full year since being acquired by the Ministry of Defence.

The company noted that the results highlight significant headwinds, including the effects of Covid-19, high energy costs and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Despite these issues, Forgemasters reported revenue of £130.6m, up from £71.9m for the 12 months ended 31 December 2020, and operating profit (pre-exceptionals) of £0.6m.

In the 15-month period, the business reported a strong level of revenue of £130.6m (up from £71.9m in 2020), driven by deliveries to UK Defence customers and facilitating a reduction in stock levels.

Within the period, Forgemasters also won £80m of new orders, up from £40m in 2020.

Forgemasters chief financial officer Stephen Hemmell said: “We’ve had some some extraordinary challenges during the year, but against that backdrop we were pleased at an underlying level to report a positive performance with a creditable level of profitability considering all of those headwinds that we were facing.”

Following the change of ownership in 2021, the company announced that the MoD intends to invest up to £400m over the next 10 years to re-capitalise defence-critical plant and equipment in order for Sheffield Forgemasters to be a reliable supplier of components to UK Defence programmes over the long-term.

David Bond, chief executive officer at Forgemasters, noted the impact of the pandemic on the company.

“There was two broad impacts with Covid, one was on our workforce, which I think we managed very professionally - we never lost a days production due to Covid,” he said.

“The issue that has been a little bit more persistent is what's happening in the market, Covid has suppressed demand in certain sectors like steel processing.

“We are seeing some signs of recovery, looking forward, in our commercial sectors we’ve secured about the same work in the first six months of this year as we did in the whole of the 12 months last year.

Mr Bond also noted how the war in Ukraine had also affected the company.

When the war began, Forgemasters stopped all work, deliveries and new contracts with Russia, which was previously one of the biggest sectors for steel processing.

Localised flooding around the start of the year also caused issues for the company, along with problems relating to ageing machinery.

Forgemasters is now taking steps to alleviate these problems, and has acquired a machinery from Japan which is set to be housed in a new building on the North side of its Sheffield site.

Energy costs for the business have also risen above three to four times their historic levels, peaking at seven to eight times historic prices in August of this year.

Commenting on the MoD takeover, Mr Bond said: “We didn't design the takeover around some of the volatility we’ve seen, but actually its proved to be very useful because of that timing

“The MoD’s attitude towards wanting to do the right long term things, to build and expand our capabilities, has been a positive outcome

“It feels like we’re in a very positive place for the future.”

Sheffield Forgemasters announces first results following MoD acquisition