A different first half of the year

We aren’t likely to forget about the first half of 2020 anytime soon. None of us probably could have imagined this development at the start of the year when we first heard of the new Corona virus from China. It has affected all parts of our society and it will continue to do so in some way for a long time. At this point no one can probably say what our society will look like once we are through this crisis, except that it won’t be just like before.

ACM hasn’t been unaffected by the development either. In our daily work we have been affected by restrictions regarding travel and visits to customers and suppliers. Trade shows have been cancelled and web meetings have become a much more common way of communicating then before. Some of our customer segments have been affected considerably and we have seen lower levels of deliveries for the whole second quarter, other segments have been less affected and there the demand has been more or less at normal levels. Some business development projects have been put on hold or are running at lower pace, which has haltered our ambition to establish new products in the market. Luckily we haven’t experienced any supply issue related to this crisis, for which we are very greatful to our suppliers and forwarding partners.

In the first quarter, before the crisis hit, we had a good development with higher turnover than budget. We saw the effect of the crisis starting in April, April and May seem to be the months affected the most with a turnover approx 25 % below budget. In June we see a beginning of a recovery and deliveries to the most affected customers are increasing again. We expect that it will take another few months before the market has recovered to some kind of normality and there are many uncertainties along the way. Based on this ACM is completing these first six months in a quite ok status. We are cautiously optimistic about the trend the rest of the year and we hope to increase our activity in the market when travel and hopefully meetings will be easier to plan again.

With this said I wish all our customers, suppliers and partners a nice summer!

Emil Engvall/MD