08-02-2012

Graham corporation awarded more than $3.5 million in orders

Graham Corporation, a global designer and manufacturer of critical equipment for the oil refining, petrochemical and power industries, including the supply of components and raw materials to nuclear energy facilities, today announced that it has been awarded more than $3.5 million in orders that are expected to be delivered in the third quarter of Graham’s fiscal year 2013, which begins April 1, 2012. 

The orders for the equipment to be designed and manufactured span three key markets within the energy industry that Graham serves: petrochemical, refining and nuclear energy.  A steam surface condenser will be engineered to provide for capacity expansion and improved operating reliability of a U.S. ethylene plant and a vacuum system will be developed for the upgrade of an oil refinery in China.  The steam surface condenser will be built in the company’s Batavia facility and the vacuum system will be partially built both in China and Batavia.

James R. Lines, Graham’s President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We believe that it’s our strong brand, built as a result of our reputation for consistently delivering high quality products and reliable responsive service, which continues to enable us to win orders and maintain our leading market share.  We have supplied equipment to this ethylene facility over several decades and have been called back again to address its expansion and operational enhancements.  Likewise, in China, we believe that we are winning opportunities in the refining industry due to the respect we have garnered from our previous work.  Our success rate for large vacuum systems for refineries remains in the 40% to 50% range for additional refining capacity added during the past 5 years. 

The remaining orders address the needs of the nuclear energy market.  Graham will supply through its Lapeer facility the replacement of a heat exchanger originally supplied by Graham in 1970 for a U.S. installation, as well as various worn pump parts at a South Korean facility. 

Mr. Lines went on to comment about the order environment, “We are encouraged by the bidding activity we are experiencing across all our markets.  The competitive advantages created by the low cost of natural gas in the U.S. has spurred domestic interest in the petrochemical industry and, as is the case with this ethylene production facility, we are also seeing some early stage investments to return idle plants to operation.  Likewise, Asia continues to generate projects to expand our pipeline of opportunities.  The oil refining markets continue to offer substantial bidding activity and we have seen a few convert into orders over the past several months.  While recent order levels have been below where we wish they were, the improving quality and expanding number of bids in the pipeline drives our optimism for the future.”