Praxair Brings Record Quarterly Income from Strong International Sales
On October 29, Praxair Incorporated (Danbury, CT), a global supplier of industrial gases, reported positive earnings for the third quarter of 2008, according to Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, TX). The company announced net profits of $355 million for the quarter, up from $305 million in the same period last year. This gain comes even after losses from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. Praxair estimates the two hurricanes brought $10 million of lost operating profits, primarily from a loss of hydrogen sales while customers' plants remained closed and without power. Strong sales of hydrogen outside of the hurricanes helped boost the Praxair's sales figures, however.
In a conference call, Elizabeth Hirsch, Director of Investor Relations, said that sales in the company's Energy segment "were primarily driven by strong growth in volumes of hydrogen sold to North American refiners. Across our other end markets, sales benefitted from moderate volume growth and higher pricing. Overall manufacturing demand remained reasonably strong, but we began to see sequential softening of demand in September in the U.S. and Europe."
Sales in all of the Praxair's operating regions were up substantially from last year, with South America and Asia showing the strongest growth:
In the company's outlook for the whole of 2008, Praxair estimates sales of $11 billion, a 17 percent increase from 2007. Driving these sales are emerging-market countries. For the quarter, sales in Mexico were up 22 percent, primarily driven by sales to the energy sector. Sales in South American countries outside of Brazil, such as Peru, Columbia, Argentina and Chile, were up 23 percent. Sales to the electronics industry in China and Korea grew 48 percent, primarily from new project start-ups and growing sales to photovoltaic customers.
