Hunting has reduced its full-year earnings outlook after third-party supply chain problems delayed deliveries from its Electronics and Dearborn manufacturing businesses, while weaker oilfield activity affected several other operations. The London-headquartered precision engineering group now expects 2026 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $128 million to $133 million, down from a previously stated range of $138 million to $141 million. Its engineering order book is being affected by both factory-level delivery constraints and reduced customer activity.
Electronics and Dearborn make up Hunting’s Advanced Manufacturing product group, where third-party supply problems slowed deliveries and prevented some orders from reaching completion when expected. Hunting has not identified the affected components, suppliers or contracts, or quantified the value of work deferred. The reported issue is therefore a timing and execution constraint on deliveries, not a disclosed cancellation of manufacturing orders. Its financial effect sits alongside a separate fall in activity in conventional oilfield markets, rather than explaining the entire group-wide downgrade.
Precision manufacturing orders normally pass through procurement, machining or electronic assembly, inspection and customer acceptance before they can be shipped. A delayed bought-in part can interrupt that sequence even when other work is complete, leaving unfinished assemblies in progress and shifting delivery dates. Hunting has not described which production steps were affected in Electronics or Dearborn, so no particular plant, component family or root cause can be assigned to the problem. The group has only confirmed lower deliveries and a slower trading recovery than previously planned.
The group also faces deteriorating activity in international oilfield markets. Tendering for oil country tubular goods, the pipe products used in the construction and operation of wells, has slowed across parts of the Middle East. Hunting linked the disruption to logistical difficulties and attacks on shipping and regional infrastructure, while reduced rig activity in Saudi Arabia has affected work associated with the Jafurah development. Orders for manufacturing equipment can remain sensitive to customers’ drilling and completion schedules even when the suppliers themselves are ready to produce.
Hunting Titan, which supplies perforating equipment used in well completion, recorded stronger activity in North America across the year to date but saw its third-quarter performance fall marginally below plan. Management expects a further slowdown in some deliveries to the Middle East and North America during the final quarter. The wider North American division also anticipates reduced oil country tubular goods activity. These market movements are separate from the Electronics and Dearborn supply issues, although both feed into the group’s revised consolidated outlook.
For the first nine months of 2026, the group reported approximately $89 million of EBITDA at a margin of around 12%. Its new full-year range of $128 million to $133 million is below the $138 million to $141 million guidance given earlier, and implies roughly $39 million to $44 million of further EBITDA in the fourth quarter on a simple nine-month comparison. That calculation is not a separate target published by Hunting. The revision combines manufacturing delivery delays with reduced drilling, tendering and shipment activity in several regional markets.
Conditions are not uniform across Hunting’s portfolio. Subsea Technologies maintained robust profitability, according to management, with customer demand and operational execution supporting its performance. The company’s Organic Oil Recovery technology also received orders for pilot testing and sampling in South America, the North Sea and the Middle East. Such pilot activity should not be equated with full-scale commercial deployment, but it provides a different stream of engineering work from conventional drilling equipment orders.
Cost reductions are already changing the economics of Hunting’s Europe, Middle East and Africa operations. The segment returned to profitability in the third quarter after restructuring that included closing the Fordoun facility near Aberdeen in September, although Hunting still expects a small EBITDA loss for the full year. Management is also planning to combine the EMEA and Asia Pacific segments, review administrative costs and dispose of selected non-core businesses. Those steps affect overheads and business structure; they do not resolve the manufacturing supply delays by themselves.
The Kuwait Oil Company tender process remains a substantial pending commercial decision. The re-tender was issued on 12 October and a result is expected before the end of 2026, with any resulting shipments due to begin in the second half of 2027. The timing means an award would not automatically reverse fourth-quarter delivery pressures. Hunting also expects Asia Pacific to break even in the second half, following a small first-half profit and thinner regional tendering activity.
At 30 September Hunting reported approximately $11 million of net borrowing, down from $19 million at the end of June, and it forecasts year-end net cash of $40 million to $45 million. The Kuwait Oil Company re-tender may be decided before the year-end, but its potential shipments are scheduled for the second half of 2027. Hunting’s next trading update is due on 19 January 2027, when the conversion of delayed deliveries and fourth-quarter market conditions can be assessed against the revised outlook.
