Precision Castparts to Buy Forging Operation

Nov. 18, 2008
Hackney Ladish produces pipe fittings for oil-and-gas infrastructure

Precision Castparts Corp. is buying Hackney Ladish, Inc. in a cash deal it expects to close before the end of the year. Hackney Ladish is a Dallas-based manufacturer of forged pipe fittings for oil-and-gas infrastructure, and related applications.

PCC has two business units, manufacturing investment castings and forgings. Its customer markets include aerospace, power generation, automotive, and general industrial and other markets.

"The acquisition of Hackney Ladish significantly broadens our role as a supplier of critical components to energy markets worldwide," stated PCC chairman and CEO Mark Donegan. "Right now, Hackney Ladish is the market and technology leader in the manufacture of pipe fittings for oil-and-gas applications, and we see great potential in continued growth on both domestic and international fronts.”

The company is a onetime Ladish Inc. operation that claims to produce the widest range of pipe fitting types and sizes. Its products are used to connect pipe, change the direction of flow, increase or reduce pipe sizes, join or separate flow, or cap pipe ends.

Hackney Ladish maintains two plants, at Enid, OK, where it manufactures Ladish and Flo-Bend special fittings, as well as weld caps; and Russellville, AR, where the main products are carbon, alloy, and high yield steel weld fittings.

Donegan said PCC would “leverage” the Hackney Ladish products and operations with its Wyman Gordon and Special Metals pipe and tube operations, which primarily serve power generation, chemical/petrochemical, and other similar industries.