Danbury, Connecticut-based industrial gases supplier Praxair reported its 2015 third quarter financials on Thursday, highlighted by further earnings decreases.
The company posted Q3 sales of $2.69 billion, a 14.6 percent decrease year-over-year, and essentially flat compared to Q2. Praxair's Q3 profit of $401 million decreased 15.9 percent from a year ago, but was up from Q2's $308 million.
Praxair said the declines were attributable to negative impacts from currency headwinds, which reduced sales by 11 percent. Organic sales declines were attributed to weaker industrial activity in Brazil and China and in the metals, energy, and manufacturing end-markets in North America.
Praxair's North America Q3 sales were $1.46 billion, down an adjusted 3 percent when not factoring in currency headwinds. Adjusted operating profit was down 2 percent. European sales of $338 million were down 12 percent from a year ago, although organic sales grew 3 percent. Adjusted operating profit grew 4 percent. In South America, Q3 sales of $343 million declined 34 percent from last year, while Asia sales of $395 million were down 7 percent. Asian organic sales grew 7 percent, while adjusted operating profit grew 9 percent.
Praxair Surface Technologies had Q3 sales of $147 million, down from last year's $171 million. Organic sales were down 7 percent.
For the first nine months of 2015, Praxair total sales of $8.2 billion were down 11.9 percent from last year, while profit of $1.1 billion was down 19.2 percent.
