Harsco Corp. income from continuing operations was $25.7 million, compared with $23.9 million last year. Fourth quarter 2003 sales totaled $564 million, up about 13 percent from sales of $497 million in the same period last year.
For the full year, income from continuing operations was $87.0 million, compared with income of $88.4 million in 2002.
Including discontinued operations, net income in 2003 was $92.2 million, compared with net income of $90.1 million in 2002. Income from discontinued operations in 2003 was $5.2 million, compared with $1.7 million in 2002.
Sales for the full year 2003 were a record $2.119 billion, an increase of about 7 percent from sales of $1.977 billion in 2002.
Derek Hathaway, Harsco chairman, president and CEO, said, ``We are pleased with the results for the fourth quarter. Our balance sheet remains strong, debt levels have been reduced, and we continue to generate high levels of cash flow from operations. We also made additional progress in our strategy for growing our industrial services businesses, with 71 percent of 2003's sales coming from services.
The company noted that for its mill services division, fourth quarter sales increased 24 percent to $227 million from $183 million the same time the previous year.
Operating income for the quarter increased 11.4 percent to $22.8 million from $20.5 million in the same period last year, reflecting positive foreign exchange translation of $3.7 million pre-tax.
The outlook for the Mill Services Segment continues to be encouraging. The estimated future value of the company's mill services contracts currently totals $3.4 billion. Global steel production is expected to rise in 2004, and bidding activity for new mill services contracts and add-on services is strong.
The company also said it plans to devote a significant amount of its strong cash flow from operations to long-term contract initiatives and acquisitions in the Mill Services Segment.
In the Access Services business, Harsco reported that positive foreign currency translation enabled fourth quarter 2003 sales to remain essentially flat with the comparable period last year, at $159 million.
Operating income for the quarter was down 9.5 percent and operating margins declined some 70 basis points to 6.9 percent. Positive foreign currency translation increased sales by $14.3 million and operating income by $1.2 million pre-tax in the quarter.
The lower operating income and reduced margins were due primarily to higher pension expense of $1.3 million in this year's fourth quarter, while last year's fourth quarter results included income of $2.2 million from asset sales. Without these items, fourth quarter 2003 operating margins would have been 7.8 percent compared with 6.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2002.