2021 started off with great momentum for Chart Industries, with the US-based company toda (22nd April) reporting record orders of $417.23m in its first quarter (Q1) 2021 results.
The highest in the company’s history, Q1 results were driven by broad based demand, including recovery in certain end markets, continued demand for clean products, and the combination of larger liquefaction orders for LNG and hydrogen.
Sharing the results today (22nd April), Chart said the order activities has contributed to a record backlog of $943.1m. Sales of $288.5m for the quarter were also reported, and are said to be in line with Chart’s expectations.
Reported gross margin as a percent of sales of 29.1% was the highest in four years, reflecting continued operational execution, synergy achievements through integrations and the increasing impact of higher growth, higher margin businesses which now represent a larger portion of our total revenue.
The strength in gross margin coupled with SG&A cost control resulted in reported diluted earnings per share of $0.63 and when adjusted for one-time costs, adjusted EPS was $0.80.
Adjusted EPS grew 196% when compared to one year ago.
“Record orders (excluding Big LNG) across the broader business in the first quarter 2021, couple with continued execution on profitability set us up early (and often) for a very strong second half of 2021,” stated Jill Evanko, Chart’s CEO and President.
“We are seeing immediate benefit from our strategic inorganic investments in the order book as reflected in our record backlog, and the momentum in the clean revolution – clean energy, clean water, clean food and clean industrial – is just getting started.”
Highlights
In Q1 2021, Chart announced its investment and commercial agreements with Transform Materials, a company with a unique hydrogen and acetylene process, and the acquisition of Cryo Technologies (“CT”), which closed on February 16, 2021.
Today, Chart also received a Letter of Intent for CT’s helium liquefaction large scale Helium plant for one of the largest independent oil and gas producers in Russia. The scope of it supply for the minimum 5 million litre per year helium plant includes equipment supply for the plant, commissioning and start-up and the order is expected to be greater than $40m
BlueInGreen (BIG) brought Chart a full dissolution water treatment package, inclusive of both technology and equipment, and therefore the company booked $1.7m of orders in the first quarter 2021, bringing its total orders since the BIG acquisition to 14 where we sold both BIG technology and Chart equipment together.
Chart also said it will continue to organically grow its repair, service and leasing business, both through investments in a larger fleet and strategic repair locations, and in Q1 the company signed 44 new leases.
Outlook
Chart said it expects the first half of 2021 to be lower than the second half of 2021 based on the lead-time of our backlog, and more specifically, it expects each quarter to sequentially increase over the prior quarter this year.
