On Monday, Vancouver, Washington-based pipe manufacturer Northwest pipe announced its financial results for Q2 2012. Net income during the quarter was $3.6 million, down from $5 million in Q2 2011 as net sales fell 8.9 percent to $131 million compared to $143.8 million in the same quarter a year ago.
Northwest Pipe's Water Transmission sales fell by 20.7 percent to $59.1 million in Q2 due to a 19 percent decrease in volume and a 3 percent decrease in selling prices per ton. Tubular Products' sales, meanwhile, increased 3.8 percent to $72 million in Q2, driven by a 1 percent increase in tons sold and a 1 percent increase in the average selling prices per ton.
"We saw lower net sales and net income in the second quarter of 2012 as compared to the second quarter of 2011, particularly in our Water Transmission segment," said Richard Roman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. "However, with the Lake Texoma project we announced a couple weeks ago, we anticipate that the second half of 2012 will be stronger in the Water Transmission segment than the first half of 2012. Consistent with other domestic tubular producers, the Tubular Products Group will struggle through at least the summer as we expect significantly higher imports of energy products to reduce net sales and profitability for that segment."