Increased infrastructure spending is expected to boost Pennsylvania-based JB Foster’s earnings, especially from its fabricated steel products business.
The steel fabricator and railway infrastructure services provider indicated in its earnings statement on Tuesday that its fabricated steel products and precast concrete products business segments will continue to benefit with increased orders and demand from the infrastructure industry.
In H1 2021, the company’s order backlog grew by 12.4pc to $253.2mn from $225.2mn in H1 2020, while its new orders increased by 3.6pc to $274.2mn from $264.7mn in the same period. Sales during this timeframe climbed by 2.7pc to $270.6mn from $263.5mn.
The company reported an order backlog worth $253.2mn in the second quarter, attributing this to strong demand in rail technologies and infrastructure solutions as well as the expansion of its precast concrete business. New orders during the quarter amounted to $138.6mn as sales grew following pent-up demand from projects that were put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic last year.
JB Foster’s sales in Q2 2021 grew to $154.5mn up from $141.6mn in the same quarter last year, with sales from its infrastructure solutions business amounting to $66mn of the total, slightly down from $67mn in Q2 2020.
Breaking up the quarterly revenue, the share of revenue from JB Fosters fabricated steel business grew to $32.2mn in Q2 from $25.6mn in the same year-ago quarter. Fabricated steel’s share in the company’s gross profit also increased to $3.8mn in Q2 2021 from $3.1mn in the second quarter of 2020.
The company reported a gross profit of $26.2mn in Q2 2021 a decline from $28.1mn in the same quarter last year due to weakness in the midstream energy market which uses the products and services provided by the company’s Coatings and Measurement line business segment.