Newport has seen an increase in sales and orders of 1.2 per cent and 10.5 per cent, respectively, in the second quarter compared with the first, with net sales of $134.2 million and new orders of $147.6 million.
These results were driven by increases in Newport’s microelectronics, industrial manufacturing and life and health sciences end markets, but the figures were also offset in part by lower sales to and orders from customers in the scientific research and defense and security end markets.
‘We are very encouraged by the rebound in new orders during the second quarter. Our new orders increased 10.5 per cent sequentially to $147.6 million and our book-to-bill ratio was greater than 1.0 in all of our target end markets,’ said, Robert Phillippy, Newport’s president and chief executive officer. ‘In addition, we strengthened our balance sheet by generating $21.8 million in cash from operations and using $10.2 million of that cash to reduce our outstanding debt.’
Looking ahead Phillippy expects sales in the second half of 2013 to increase compared with the first half of the year. Phillippy predicts a third quarter net sales to be in the range of $136 million to $143 million.
