Manufacturer News: 11.19.2009

Reports from the Automation Fair

Rockwell held its annual Automation Fair conference/show last week in Anaheim, Calif. If you didn’t go—or did, but didn’t manage to be just about everywhere in Anaheim—here’s where you can find more online:

Plant-wide optimization, Sustainable Manufacturing, and more—from Plant Engineering’s report.

Blog (from Plant Engineering)—manufacturing perspectives at the Fair.

Plant PAx launched—it stands for process automation. 

Also: ControlGlobal.com had it covered, with 20 separate reports available (linked from this page). See, for example, RA eyes converging trends.

See also the Fair’s press room.

Rockwell’s FY09 Ends Down 24%

Sales in fiscal year 2009, which ended on Sept. 30, were $4.33 billion at Rockwell Automation, down 24% compared to the previous fiscal year. From Keith Nosbusch, chairman/CEO (as highlighted in the press release):

“We took decisive actions throughout the year to right-size the cost structure to current business conditions, including cost actions in the fourth quarter that will create additional tailwinds for fiscal 2010…We also quickly aligned inventory levels to lower demand, effectively managed receivables in a difficult credit environment, and appropriately constrained capital spending, enabling us to generate strong, free cash flow of over $430 million for the year.”

Weighing in at 7,900-plus words, the transcript of Rockwell’s earnings conference call can be found here. Here’s Nosbusch’s answer to a question on the company’s MRO business:

“I think the fact that we have seen sequential growth in our product businesses tells us, and just the macroeconomic indicators of improving industrial production tells us, that we are seeing stronger MRO I would say operating business.

“I think also the other thing that you see is that the amount of de-stocking dropped again in Q4 and we believe it’s over now and so that provided a little bit of benefit as well.

“Basically what we’re seeing is manufacturing is running slightly stronger than what it was in our second and third quarters. Certainly, the pick-up in our product businesses is, I believe, an indication that we’re starting to see some spending in MRO. Plus, people are understanding the cash situation that they’re in.

“The credit markets, while not great, have certainly stabilized. People understand what they can and can’t do with respect to providing the grease to run their operations, so I think all of that is what we saw starting to play out as we went through our fourth quarter.”

More Financial Snapshots

AETI—for the year’s first nine months, sales at American Electric Technologies were $40 million, down 17%.

COMM SYSTEMS—an 11% decrease in nine-month sales here produced a figure of $83.5 million. The company said sales in the period were up in North America, down elsewhere.

HWC—Houston Wire & Cable’s Q3 sales were down 35.7% vs. Q3 of 2008, to nearly $64 million. For the year’s first nine months, sales were $191.3 million, down 33%. From Chuck Sorrentino, president/CEO: “Operating expenses have now reached their lowest level since our IPO in 2008…we continue to remain focused on market-share gains and added approximately 50 new customers [in Q3].”

NEXXUS LIGHTING—Q3 sales here were $2.89 million, down 25% (which improved on Q2, in which sales were down 32%). The company said sales of its Array LED lamps doubled to $423,000 in Q3 from $197,000 in Q2. At the nine-month mark, revenue (excluding the recent Lumificient acquisition) was down 34% from the same period in 2008, to $5.77 million.

Also: The company said it intends to offer 5 million shares in a “follow-on” offering of its common stock to the public. NEXS stock’s price has fallen $.60 (roughly 12.5%) since the offering was announced.

TYCO—fiscal year 2009 ended at Tyco International with $1.39 billion in electrical and metal products segment sales, down 39%. Q4 sales were $326 million, down 45%.

USI—the fiscal first half ended Sept. 30 at Universal Security Instruments with sales of $13.8 million, down 5.2%. The company said it expended $100,000 “of engineering expense related to new product development” in fiscal Q2.

Manufacts

EMERSON USERS MEET—the Emerson Global Users Exchange is the subject of a report on Automation.com. More than 1,600 attendees “networked with other users and learned about new products and techniques by taking advantage of over 300 workshops, short courses, industry forums, and a 46,000-square-foot exhibit area featuring Emerson and partner products.”

GE SELLS—General Electric is selling its security business to United Technologies. Announced price: $1.82 billion. The GE Security unit, according to The Wall Street Journal, has eight factories and employs 4,700 people (in 26 countries). Did GE make money on its venture into security, which began earlier in this decade (and included several acquisitions, a sell-off of another unit, and the retention of 19% of the smaller unit)? See this TheStreet.com analysis.

GREENLEE REBRANDS—the company’s Fairmont tools are now the Greenlee Utility brand, according to a report on Industrial Distribution’s website.

JUNO + ELITE KISS & MAKE UP—that’s the gist of a Nov. 10 release from Juno Lighting Group (unit, Schneider), following up on a “cease and desist” order it slapped on Elite Lighting (see initial report here). Now, Juno’s release said, “the parties have amicably resolved that infringement charge, and Elite has committed to respect Juno’s patent rights.”

LITTELFUSE OPENS—a new facility in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Canada) was opened recently under the name Littelfuse Startco. The 67,500-square-foot plant will “meet increased customer demand for its protection relays and custom power centers,” according to a release. Littelfuse acquired Startco last year.

LUTRON & SMART GRID—a new “Smart Grid” initiative, launched last week by Lutron, is summarized in this release. The plan: “The company hopes to move quickly to help connect power utilities ‘smart metering’ to the electrical infrastructure in both residential homes and commercial spaces.”

NORTEK FILES—as initially reported here on Oct. 8, Nortek has filed for protection under Chapter 11 bankruptcy laws. More.

OPTICAL CONSOLIDATES—Optical Cable has merged Superior Modular Products (a/k/a/ SMP Data Communications) into itself. It bought SMP on May 30, 2008; now, the SMP data has disappeared.

Also: Optical acquired Applied Optical Systems, a company in which it has held an interest. AOS makes specialty FO connectors and connectivity solutions for military and harsh environment applications.

PURE SPECTRUM MOVES—the company has almost completed a financial maneuver improving its stock listing. The stock symbol is now PSRU.OB. Read more (and see if you can figure it out) here.

STANLEY BUYS BLACK & DECKER—price: $4.5 billion. Gross sales of the merged entity, when it starts out life: $8.4 billion annually. More.