vesuvius plc said on thursday that its 2021 trading profit it set to be in line with expectations despite slowing steel production in china and material and freight cost increases the uk moltenmetalflow engineering company said foundry endmarkets have had robust demand except the automotive industry where production growth has significantly underperformed expectations earlier in the year due to the continued global shortage of semiconductors and broader supplychain issues these challenges are now expected to persist well into 2022 with automotive market production forecasts revised materially downwards as a result the company said vesuvius said that revenue growth to october was broadly in line with the boards expectations it added that although it expects 2021 group trading profit to be in line with current analyst expectations this will be at the lower end of the range the company said that analyst forecasts at nov 10 for earnings before interest taxes and amortization are in the 137 million pounds to 147 million pounds 1837 million to 1971 million range