Northwest Pipe Company today announced its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2021. Net sales increased 5.5 percent to $73.8 million in the second quarter of 2021 from $70.0 million in the second quarter of 2020.
In a press release, the company said the increase was primarily due to higher shipments from the Geneva Pipe and Precast Company operations acquired in January 2020, which contributed $15.0 million in the second quarter of 2021 compared to $12.4 million in the second quarter of 2020. Net sales were relatively consistent at the company's steel pipe facilities for the second quarter of 2021 compared to the second quarter of 2020.
Net income was $2.1 million in the second quarter of 2021 compared to $6.0 million in the second quarter of 2020.
Scott Montross, President and CEO of the company, said in the press release, "As we expected, the second quarter continued to be challenging for the steel pressure pipe business. The combination of steel delivery issues, customer-driven delays on existing orders, and the associated bidding pressure that occurred due to the significant project bidding delays over the past few quarters negatively affected our second quarter production levels as well as our margins. We saw project bidding begin to stabilize and improve during the second quarter which resulted in a steel pressure pipe backlog that grew to $234 million. The precast concrete business remained very strong during the quarter, offsetting slowness in the steel pressure pipe business, and leading to an order book that remains at a historically high level."
As for an outlook, Montross said, "We expect steel pressure pipe bidding strength and stability to continue to improve in the second half of the year. However, we anticipate that our steel pressure pipe revenue and margin recovery will be slow in the beginning of the second half of 2021 given the ripple effects we will continue to experience from steel delivery delays and existing job and project bidding delays. This is in addition to the lingering effect of market panic bidding and the resulting margin pressure that occurred due to significant bidding delays in the second half of 2020 and early 2021. That said, we believe a stronger bidding environment in the second half of 2021, coupled with our growing backlog, should support improved revenue and margins as we move into the latter part of 2021 and into 2022. In addition, the precast concrete business is expected to remain strong during the second half of 2021."