Canton, Ohio-based steelmaker and manufacturer The Timken Company reported Thursday net income of $454.3 million for the full 2011 due to record high sales of $5.2 billion. Income in 2010 totaled $274.8 million. Timken said that higher volumes, favorable mix, surcharges and higher prices drove the improvement, more than offsetting increased raw material costs. In Q4 2011, Timken recorded net sales of $1.3 billion and net income of $109.1 million compared to $90.3 million in the comparable quarter in 2010.
Most of Timken's business segments registered growth in Q4 and for the full year 2011. Sales for steel, including inter-segment sales, were $2 billion in 2011, an increase of 44 percent from $1.4 billion in 2010. Demand from the energy and industrial sectors drove the improvement, as well as favorable pricing and an increase in raw-material surcharges of approximately $210 million. Timken expects that steel sales will increase 5 to 10 percent in 2012, driven by demand in the energy and mobile on-highways sectors, as well as pricing.
Sales for the Process Industries segment were $1.2 billion in 2011, an increase of 38 percent from $903.4 million a year ago, while in Q4, sales for the Mobile Industries segment increased 8 percent year-on-year to $419.6 million.
However, for the full year 2011, Aerospace and Defense sales were $324.1 million, down 4 percent from the same period a year ago due to lower demand for defense-related products.