Engine trouble for Rolls-Royce as firm falls short

Rolls-Royce has said that it will deliver fewer Trent 7000 engines to customers than originally planned as production problems continue to dog the firm.

The engineering giant said that “early stage production ramp up challenges” in the fourth quarter will mean it will fall short of its engine delivery projection of 550 large engines.

It now expects to deliver around 500. Airbus had been expecting 30 of the engines for its newest jet, the A330neo.

The group said in a stock exchange announcement: “While we regret the impact this will have on our customers, we are today re-iterating our financial guidance for 2018 profit and free cash flow as provided at the time of our interim results in August 2018.

“We continue to work very closely with Airbus and our customers on the details of the delivery schedule.

“As we move into 2019 we are confident that Trent 7000 production and delivery volumes will increase significantly to meet our customer commitments.”

Shares were down over 4% to 837p in afternoon trade following the announcement.

Rolls has been beset with problems with its engines recently.

Earlier this year, Rolls warned over costs linked to the discovery of technical issues with its Trent 1000 engines.

Rolls said it could see costs associated with the issues hit to £440 million.

The firm added on Friday: “Our priority has always been to ensure that the Trent 7000 engine meets customer expectations on entry into service and we have seen very good performance attributes during a rigorous testing phase.

“While the production ramp up issues in Q4 are regrettable, such issues in the early stages of a new engine programme are not uncommon in our industry.”