On July 22, Vancouver, Washington, US-based welded steel pipe producer Northwest Pipe Company (Northwest Pipe) announced that it has received a commitment from S.J. Louis Construction Company to supply pipe for the Raw Water Pipeline project, owned by the Brushy Creek Regional Utility Authority (BCRUA), to furnish approximately 24,000 linear feet of 78" steel water pipe and fittings.
According to a statement released by the pipe maker, the value of the pipe order is approximately $6.2 million. The pipe will be manufactured at the Saginaw facility of Northwest Pipe and delivery is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2009.
The BCRUA is a partnership of the cities of Cedar Park, Leander and Round Rock, Texas. All three cities have supply contracts with the Lower Colorado River Authority for water from Lake Travis and this project will provide the facilities to access, treat and deliver this water to their customers.
Northwest Pipe will report its financial results for the second quarter of 2009 on July 29, 2009. Northwest Pipe president and CEO Brian Durham said, "Our Tubular Products Group did not meet our expectations in the second quarter."
"Our selling prices for this group continued to decline throughout the quarter instead of leveling off as we had expected. Our average selling price in the second quarter was down approximately 30 percent from the first quarter. While we are in the process of finalizing our results, obviously this will have a negative effect on both our revenues and gross margins. Effective cost control during the quarter helped to offset this impact. Preliminary results in the Water Transmission Group, in contrast to Tubular Products, are much closer to expectations."