Eaton Corp. is heading toward all-time sales and profit records despite the uncertainties about government debt here and around the globe and their impact on economic growth.
The world's growing preoccupation with energy and energy efficiency has a lot to do with Eaton's forecast Monday that it will sell more than $16 billion in industrial equipment this year -- up by nearly a fifth over last year. About 55 percent of Eaton's sales are outside the United States.
"People are recognizing that energy prices are going to do nothing but go up from here, and they are investing in those types of solutions that will enable them to reduce their energy costs," said Alexander "Sandy" Cutler, Eaton's chairman, president and chief executive officer.
"That is the great mega-trend that Eaton has been attached to for some time since we are a power management company," he said in an interview after releasing the company's financial results for the second quarter.
The Cleveland company is a diversified global manufacturer of power management technologies. The company employs 73,000 worldwide, including divisions here in Cleveland, Euclid, Parma and Aurora, but does not release employment information on a country-by-country basis.
Eaton manufacturers everything from transmissions, clutches and hybrid systems for heavy-duty trucks, to hydraulics for agricultural equipment, from components for aircraft to superchargers and engine valves for cars, from hydraulic systems for wind turbines to the electrical guts of solar arrays, from electrical equipment for buildings to electronic power conditioning systems for computer data centers.
Cutler said the company expects sales to grow by 19 percent this year compared to 2010 and profits to increase by 42 percent to more than $4 per share of stock - both records for the company that turns 100 years old in a few months.
During the second quarter -- April through June -- Eaton's profits soared by 49 percent to $336 million, or 97 cents per share. That compares to $226 million, or 66 cents per share, in the second quarter of 2010, the company's financial report shows.
Sales for the second quarter were $4.09 million, up 21 percent from the $3.38 million in the same period last year.
Each of Eaton's five business segments showed double-digit growth in the second quarter compared to the same period last year, both in sales and profits.
"We are completing a very strong second quarter, a strong second half and what we expect to be a record year in both sales and profits," Cutler told financial analysts in a public teleconference, now available on the investor relations section of Eaton's web site.
Cutler added that at this point, sales and profits in 2012 look healthy as well. He said the company estimates that global manufacturing will increase by 5.2 percent next year.
But for the rest of this year, Cutler said sales should exceed $16 billion. The accelerating business growth this year have already prompted the company to adjust its 2011 sales and earnings forecast four times.
In January, the company forecast an 8 percent market growth, in February, 9 percent, in April, 10 percent and now 11 percent. The company expects this year's net earnings, or profits, to run between $3.90 and $4.10 per share. That's up from a January forecast of $3.50 to $3.80 per share.
Eaton's financial results beat analysts' predictions. The company's share price on the New York Stock Exchange increased by $1.43 to $52.59 per share.
2011年7月25日星期一
2011年6月8日星期三
State probes deaths of workers in Durham manhole
State inspectors were investigating Wednesday how two workers for a Burlington company became trapped in a manhole in Durham Tuesday evening and died.
Jesus Martinez Benitez, 32, of Clayton, and Luis Castaneda Gomez, 34, of Durham, were working for Triangle Grading and Paving when they became trapped in a manhole at U.S. Highway 70, near Leesville Road, shortly before 6 p.m., authorities said.
Allen McNeely, deputy director of the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health, said that one of the men went down the manhole and suffocated when he was deprived of oxygen. The other man saw his co-worker was in trouble and went into the hole to rescue him and also suffocated, McNeely said.
"What you've got down in the bottom (of the hole) is any number of things – whatever is connected to that manhole, could be methane gas or could be any number of things – that would cause oxygen deprivation," McNeely said.
The Bethesda Volunteer Fire Department and the Durham County Hazmat Team tested the area before sending someone down into the manhole to extract the bodies and found that oxygen levels were too low to sustain life, said Capt. Don Ladd of the Durham County Sheriff's Office.
A passerby who called 911 to report the incident yelled down into the manhole at least twice but received no response from the men.
"I'm looking down in the hole, and these two guys are completely out," the caller told the 911 dispatcher.
The manhole led to an underground access point for utilities, according to Ladd, who described the space inside as a 4- by 6-foot concrete bunker about 10 to 12 feet below the surface.
Ladd said it was unclear what the men were doing in the manhole, although they might have been trying to remove a piece of equipment or open a valve.
Durham is adding water lines along U.S. 70 in the area, officials said.
Eight workplace health and safety complaints have been filed against Triangle Grading and Paving in the past 14 years, according to U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration records. One worker was killed in 1997 when a hydraulic hose ruptured and caused the bulldozer he was operating to catch fire, records show.
The company was fined $40,000 last year for serious and willful safety violations for exposing employees to hazards while working in an 8-foot-deep trench at Fort Bragg, records show.
"An employer is responsible for making sure confined spaces are monitored, so you know what's going on down there," McNeely said. "That's some of the things we'll be checking on, that and training the individuals, making sure they knew what they were working on."
Triangle Grading and Paving officials issued a statement Wednesday expressing sorrow at the men's deaths and stating that the firm is dedicated to ensuring worker safety and is cooperating in the state investigation.
"We take great pride in our safety and education programs at Triangle. We do everything in our power to prevent injuries and deaths in a dangerous occupation," the statement said.
Jesus Martinez Benitez, 32, of Clayton, and Luis Castaneda Gomez, 34, of Durham, were working for Triangle Grading and Paving when they became trapped in a manhole at U.S. Highway 70, near Leesville Road, shortly before 6 p.m., authorities said.
Allen McNeely, deputy director of the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health, said that one of the men went down the manhole and suffocated when he was deprived of oxygen. The other man saw his co-worker was in trouble and went into the hole to rescue him and also suffocated, McNeely said.
"What you've got down in the bottom (of the hole) is any number of things – whatever is connected to that manhole, could be methane gas or could be any number of things – that would cause oxygen deprivation," McNeely said.
The Bethesda Volunteer Fire Department and the Durham County Hazmat Team tested the area before sending someone down into the manhole to extract the bodies and found that oxygen levels were too low to sustain life, said Capt. Don Ladd of the Durham County Sheriff's Office.
A passerby who called 911 to report the incident yelled down into the manhole at least twice but received no response from the men.
"I'm looking down in the hole, and these two guys are completely out," the caller told the 911 dispatcher.
The manhole led to an underground access point for utilities, according to Ladd, who described the space inside as a 4- by 6-foot concrete bunker about 10 to 12 feet below the surface.
Ladd said it was unclear what the men were doing in the manhole, although they might have been trying to remove a piece of equipment or open a valve.
Durham is adding water lines along U.S. 70 in the area, officials said.
Eight workplace health and safety complaints have been filed against Triangle Grading and Paving in the past 14 years, according to U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration records. One worker was killed in 1997 when a hydraulic hose ruptured and caused the bulldozer he was operating to catch fire, records show.
The company was fined $40,000 last year for serious and willful safety violations for exposing employees to hazards while working in an 8-foot-deep trench at Fort Bragg, records show.
"An employer is responsible for making sure confined spaces are monitored, so you know what's going on down there," McNeely said. "That's some of the things we'll be checking on, that and training the individuals, making sure they knew what they were working on."
Triangle Grading and Paving officials issued a statement Wednesday expressing sorrow at the men's deaths and stating that the firm is dedicated to ensuring worker safety and is cooperating in the state investigation.
"We take great pride in our safety and education programs at Triangle. We do everything in our power to prevent injuries and deaths in a dangerous occupation," the statement said.
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