Delays in some major aircraft development projects are hampering Black Country aerospace tooling specialist Hampson Industries’ efforts to pull itself out of recession.

Hampson gave the City a reasonably upbeat appraisal of its progress since March 31 in a trading update yesterday, but conceded that product development delays at some of the world’s leading aerospace companies was causing uncertainty.

It said demand for both initial and production rate tooling “remain robust” but timing delays are being caused by customer engineering processes and cash flow management.

This is impacting the release of new orders, particularly for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the Airbus A350 and Lockheed’s F-35 strike fighter programmes.

“Although this is likely to result in an overall reduction in tooling revenue during 2009/10, the delays in customer order placement have led to a substantial build up in the value of outstanding quotations submitted for new tooling orders and an increase in work-in-progress,” Hampson said.

Aggregate quotations over and above the current order book now stand at more than $400 million £242.4 million), a like-for-like increase of more than 40 per cent compared with the same period in the 2008/09 financial year.

Demand for military aerospace components – the F-35 notwithstanding – “has remained robust”, while Hampson’s automotive turbocharger business has traded “slightly better” than expected thanks to cost cutting and marginally improved demand.

Earlier this week Hampson banked £23.7 million from the sale of its Birmingham-based Hampson Aerospace Machining Ltd subsidiary to Darwin Private Equity as part of its plan to focus on aerospace tooling sales, which account for nearly 60 per cent of revenue.

“The out-turn for the current year will ultimately be determined by the timing of conversion of pipeline demand for high value tools required by the larger aerospace programmes into firm orders,” yesterday’s interim management statement said.

“Although timings remain difficult to predict, present indications, the unprecedented scale of new work in the pipeline and known programme requirements, all point to an increase in tooling revenue during the second half of the current year, continuing at a strong level into 2010/11.

“The board therefore remains confident that in spite of the short-term uncertainty arising from delays to major programmes, the group is well positioned to convert the opportunities available into attractive returns for shareholders.”