HARRISBURG, Pa., May 9, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Worldwide industrial services and products company Harsco Corporation (NYSE:HSC) announced today that its Patent Construction Systems access services division has secured new contracts valued at more than $15 million over the next three to five years to support EPA Clean Air compliance upgrades at major electric power plants throughout the eastern United States.
Under the contracts, Patent will provide scaffolding as well as concrete forming and shoring services to support power plant scrubber installation and other related Clean Air retrofit and new construction. In addition, Patent sees the potential for more business as additional Clean Air-related projects emerge from the planning stage and come up for bid.
The Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) of 2005 is designed to significantly reduce power plant emissions by 2015, and impacts 28 eastern states and the District of Columbia. Initial Phase I requirements are to be completed by 2009. It is expected that nearly all the retrofit equipment that will be used to meet these standards will be installed in stacks and flues at height, requiring extensive scaffolding to provide worker access, and concrete structures to support the new equipment.
Announcing the contracts, Patent's Executive Vice President and General Manager Robert Safier said, "Estimates of the overall industry-wide costs for Clean Air retrofits and upgrades by the 2015 deadline range as high as $20 billion. This is a massive initiative which Patent is well-positioned to support."
The Clean Air projects represent a further extension to Patent's long-standing role as one of North America's largest providers of rental scaffolding, shoring and concrete forming equipment and services to the industrial plant maintenance and energy sector. Many of the power plants to be upgraded are facilities already served by Patent on an ongoing basis for normal maintenance and planned outages, including some where Patent already has "lay-down" yards with inventory on-site, along with erection and dismantling crews operating out of the yards on a regular basis. Others will be served on an individual bid basis. In addition to a full range of access equipment rentals and on-site support, Patent also offers comprehensive access design and engineering services to its customers.
The new orders parallel an improving market outlook for another Harsco operation that also serves the energy sector. Harsco's Air-X-Changers division is projecting a strong order book through the balance of 2006 as market conditions in the natural gas drilling and pipeline distribution industry continue to remain buoyant. Air-X-Changers heat exchangers are the primary apparatus used to protect compression systems and condition natural gas during recovery, compression and transportation from underground reserves through the major pipeline distribution channels. As more wells are drilled at increasingly lower pressure outputs, more compression units are required, which in turn require more heat exchangers.
Harsco Corporation is a diversified, worldwide industrial services and products company with 2005 sales of $2.8 billion. The Company's four market-leading business groups provide mill services, access services, engineered products and services, and gas containment and control technologies to customers around the globe. Harsco employs approximately 21,000 people in 45 countries of operation. Additional information about Harsco, including its Patent Construction Systems and Air-X-Changers divisions, can be found at www.harsco.com.
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