Pump manufacturer Gorman Rupp posted $100.3 million in net sales in the first quarter compared to $99.2 million during the first quarter of 2015. The first quarter activity in larger water markets increased sales of $1.2 million in the municipal market driven primarily by large volume pumps for flood control and wastewater and $1.3 million in the fire protection market because of domestic sales. The increases were largely offset by lower construction market sales of $1.5 million primarily caused by the severe global decline in the drilling of oil and gas.
The first quarter activity in non-water markets included increased sales of $1.7 million in the petroleum market because of the timing of long-term infrastructure market related to mid-stream transmission of refined petrochemical products. The increase was offset by lower industrial market sales of $2.2 million attributable to the downturn in oil and gas production and the related decline in the offloading of oil from barges caused by excess inventory.
Domestic sales increased $2.6 million or 3.9 percent driven by petroleum, municipal and fire-protection markets while international sales dropped $1.5 million or 4.5 percent with lower sales in most major markets.
“Our financial performance continues to be impacted by multiple challenges, most notably the business confidence instability related to the global price of oil and low commodity prices,” said Jeffrey Gorman, president and CEO of Gorman Rupp. “While we expect the near-term to be similarly challenging, we are encouraged by the quarter’s growth in incoming orders and are cautiously optimistic that a slow recovery has begun.”
