EOS resumes Covid-hit exports worth $150 million

Space, communications and defence equipment manufacturer Electro Optic Systems has restarted exports of $150 million worth of weapons systems stalled by shutdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In August the Canberra company reported major disruptions to its supply chain in the last week of June interrupted product delivery and delayed revenues until later this year.

The half year result was a loss after tax of $14.3 million, nonetheless revenue was up 31.3 per cent to $75.4 million.

However today EOS told investors that a senior team of company engineers have travelled from Australia to the overseas customer country – unnamed by the company – to oversee delivery and testing of products.

Airports in Australia and overseas are now operating at sufficient freight capacity to have allowed $100 million of goods to be exported by the company during the pandemic.

Another $50 million will be exported in the next eight weeks, a precursor to systems integration with components and vehicles provided by other suppliers.

The company said: “EOS expects that it will take six to eight weeks to re-implement the full installation, integration, safety qualification, weapon testing and physical delivery process that was suspended in March.

“Once the process of delivery has been re-started cash flow is expected to resume in Q4 2020 and the accumulated backlog of product deliveries is expected to be cleared in six months.”

EOS has not revealed which contract was affected, but EOS is busy on contracts for its remote weapons systems for armoured vehicles worth as much as $450 million.

It has said that that during the half three staff at the company’s UAE facility and one in the United States tested positive for Covid-19, necessitating other staff to isolate. All have recovered and returned to work.

Picture: Electro Optic Systems

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