CLYDE Union, the Glasgow engineering firm formerly owned by Jim McColl’s Clyde Blowers Capital, has dealt a blow to hopes the rally in the crude price has boosted the sector in Scotland as it reported sharp falls in annual revenues and orders.
The latest accounts for the US-owned company, which supplies pumps used by oil and gas firms, show Clyde Union's turnover fall 15 per cent in 2017, to £38.2m, from £45.2m in the preceding year.
Order bookings fell around 12% to £40.7m from £46.2m.
However, the company cut annual losses to £7.9m before tax, from £12.4m.
In their strategic report, dated September 4, directors said Clyde Union had experienced a continuation of the downturn in its key markets.“The recovery in upstream oil and gas investment through upgrading and refurbishment has yet to materialise across the industry,” they added.
The comments suggest that while sentiment has improved in areas such as the North Sea recently, amid the increase in the crude price since late 2016, the supply chain remains under pressure.
Some oil and gas firms have approved North Sea investments this year. However, work on the projects concerned is in the early stages.
Scotland’s engineering sector was hit hard by the deep cuts in spending made by North Sea firms in response to the sharp fall in the crude price from 2014 to 2016. These triggered thousands of job losses across the country.
Clyde Union’s monthly average number of employees fell to 313 last year, from 402 in the preceding year. The firm had nearly 900 staff on its books in Cathcart in 2011, when US-based SPX acquired it from Clyde Blowers.
In the latest accounts directors said: “The company is a key part of SPX FLOW Inc’s business and continues to develop strong relationships with existing and new customers.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here