recently-acquired Eastern Plastics Inc (EPI). The Dispensing Equipment segment will consist of FAST, Fluid Management and Lubriquip. The Fire & Safety/Diversified Products segment will include the company’s Hale Products’ fire suppression and rescue tools businesses, as well as Idex’s BAND-IT engineered clamping business.
SULZER PUMPS ORDER INTAKE INCREASES BY 29% Sulzer Pumps grew its order intake 28.9% to SFr877.0 million in the first six months of 2006. According to Sulzer, markets in Asia, the Americas and the Middle East performed at particularly high levels. All industry segments were strong, in particular hydrocarbon processing. Sulzer Pumps expects further growth during the coming months. During the first half of 2006, the Sulzer group enjoyed continued growth. Order intake increased by SFr350.1 million to SFr1654.8 million. Demand for Sulzer’s products and services grew considerably during the second quarter, although at a lower growth rate than in the exceptional first quarter. The most significant growth was realised at the Sulzer Pumps and Sulzer Chemtech divisions. Looking ahead, the main markets served by Sulzer -
Pump Industry Analyst
oil and gas, power generation and aerospace - are expected to remain very active with high levels of capital spending. The automotive sector is also expected to develop well, while the pulp and paper business will remain stable. The company remains confident that it will benefit from these trends and will realise a high level of order intake during the second half of the year albeit with lower growth rates.
RECORD Q2 BOOKINGS FOR FLOWSERVE Flowserve Corp has reported record second quarter bookings of approximately US$900 million for the three months ended 31 March 2006, up 29% on 2005. This compares with second quarter 2005 organic bookings of approximately US$696 million, or reported 2005 bookings of US$723 million. For the first six months of 2006, organic bookings increased to a record level of approximately US$1.82 billion. This represents an increase of 32% compared with organic bookings of US$1.38 billion a year earlier, and an increase of 27% over reported bookings of US$1.44 billion, in the prior year period. Organic bookings exclude divested operations, where applicable, in relevant periods and the effect of currency in 2006 periods.
“Our pump business has been extremely robust and achieved the highest quarterly bookings increase among our business segments,” said Flowserve president and chief executive officer Lewis Kling. “This bodes very well for the future, since projectrelated purchases of valves typically lag those of pumps in our customers’ project investment cycle. And, the increased pump installed base provides us with greater aftermarket opportunities, where our mechanical seal business has been particularly strong.” The company also repaid US$25 million of debt in the second quarter of 2006, including a US$20 million repayment on its revolving credit facility, which reduced the revolver balance to zero at the end of the second quarter.
GRUNDFOS ACQUIRES SWEDISH PUMP PIT MAKER Grundfos has signed an agreement to acquire Wåge Industri AB, a Swedish producer of customised prefabricated pump pits for the wastewater market. Founded in 1966, Töreboda-based Wåge Industri had a 2005 turnover of SKr25 million and employs 17 people. Grundfos expects that the business’s turnover can be doubled over the next 3–4 years. Continued on page 16
IN BRIEF • UK-based provider of ultrahard surface engineering technology Hardide Plc is planning to open its first US coatings facility in Texas, USA, later this year. The move represents an investment of £2.9 million over the next 24 months. “Our new facility means we can enhance and expand our services to our current US customers as well as develop the huge amount of interest that has been shown in our technology by new customers in the last 12 months,” said Jim Murray-Smith, CEO of Hardide. Hardide coatings are used in the manufacture of high-end valves and pumps, and in the aerospace, power and chemical industries. • Flygt Canada has launched an aftermarket portal at www.flygt.ca/aftermarket/. • Petrobas has selected the Water Technologies division of Siemens’ Industrial Solutions and Services (I&S) Group to provide a produced water treatment system to its P-53 FPSO unit, located off the coast of Brazil. The produced water treatment system will include Monosep dissolved gas flotation (DGF) technology, which combines a patented flotation and DGF pump system. • The AIM-listed Chinese concrete pump maker Jarlway Holdings plc generated a turnover of almost £4.9 million and a consolidated net profit after taxation £294 000 for the 12 months ended 31 December 2005.
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NEWS/IN BRIEF
July 2006