IN FOCUS

The brisk sales activity of pump manufacturer and system integrator Lewa has been honored with the Global Connect award at the exhbition for export and internationalization in Stuttgart/Germany in the category “Hidden Champion”.

The recent plunge in oil prices has caused some subsea projects to be canceled or delayed but there are more than 100 projects moving forward. The subsea vessel industry is currently expanding at 7%/yr. Over 54 percent of the active fleet has been delivered over the past eight years. There are also an additional 115 vessels under construction. The status of projects is continually reported in Oil, Gas, Shale and Refining Markets and Projects published by the McIlvaine Company.

National Oilwell Varco, Inc. reported that for its third quarter ended September 30, 2014, it earned net income of $699 million, or $1.62 per fully diluted share, compared to second quarter ended June 30, 2014 net income of $619 million, or $1.44 per fully diluted share.

Ron Aceto joined Cornell Pump in March 2013, as the North Atlantic regional manager, with responsibilities for municipal, industrial, food, refrigeration, mining, and water transfer markets in the Canadian Maritimes and the US Eastern Seaboard to down to Virginia.

Parker Hannifin Corporation announced that Peter Popoff, Vice President and President – Filtration Group, age 62, will retire effective February 1, 2015, after 36 years of dedicated service to Parker.

Pfeiffer Vacuum generated sales of € 296.4 million during the first nine months of 2014 during which an EBIT margin of 10.7 percent was achieved. This result is broadly in line with management’s expectations communicated at the AGM.

Franklin Electric Co. reported third quarter 2014 adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.50 compared to 2013 third quarter adjusted EPS of $0.50, flat to last year. In the third quarter of 2014, the Company s GAAP fully diluted EPS was $0.46, which was down 10 percent to the GAAP fully diluted EPS from the third quarter of 2013.

HMS Group releases its order intake for the third quarter and the nine months of 2014.

Gas-to-liquids plants can cost up to $15 billion. Coal-to-liquids plants cost even more. Investments in these plants is highly dependent on the perceived demand. This factor, in turn, is a function of attractiveness of alternatives such as wind, solar, electrical energy storage, tar sands, coal bed methane, underground coal gasification, shale gas, shale oil, oil shale, small modular nuclear, small scale LNG, advanced coal-fired power plants, etc.

Parker Hannifin Corporation reported results for the fiscal 2015 first quarter ended September 30, 2014. Fiscal 2015 first quarter sales were $3.27 billion, a first quarter record, compared with $3.23 billion in the prior year quarter. Net income was $280.2 million, a 15 percent increase compared with $244.3 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2014.