Graham Corporation (NYSE:GHM) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Daniel Thoren: Yes. So we have seen an uptick domestically. We want a big order in India and China has been really slow coming out of COVID. So our pipeline domestically really cleared out a little bit here this last quarter where we got several different orders, but we just haven’t seen the China market come back as quickly as we thought that we would at this point.

Richard Ryan: What was the size of the India award?

Christopher Thome: Yes, it was about $9 million.

Richard Ryan: And what’s the delivery time frame on that?

Christopher Thome: I’d say over the next 1.5 years.

Operator: [Operator Instructions]. Our next question comes from the line of Bill Baldwin with Baldwin Anthony Securities.

Bill Baldwin: I would just like to hear your comments and insights on what you’re seeing right now in terms of activity or what kind of projects you’re kind of aiming for in terms of potential future activity regarding your new energy initiatives and your cryogenic initiatives that I know you’re involved with. Can you provide a little color there as to what types of projects you’re working on or looking at?

Daniel Thoren: Yes, we can. I would say that the hydrogen inquiries have increased. And so there’s a lot of these air products types, the industrial gas types of companies that are looking at hydrogen and see a real opportunity to start to serve that market in the future. So actually went to a hydrogen conference in Houston last month and kind of learned what was going on there. Lots of technology development, lots of investment in infrastructure for hydrogen production, distribution of hydrogen fueling of hydrogen vehicles, et cetera., went to the National Renewable Energy Lab to kind of understand what they’re doing quite a bit of activity on the hydrogen side there also. So I would say that the biggest thing that we’re seeing is really probably on the hydrogen side.

and people are interested in all phases from production all the way through fueling using hydrogen. It’s the future is anybody’s guess as to how it really unfolds. But there’s — it’s kind of interesting to compare it to the space environment that we saw a decade ago where it was all government. And now we’re starting to see quite a few commercial companies starting to put their own money into it. So pretty interesting. And then small modular Nuclear, we continue to see just a steady push to develop technology there. There are several different companies that are working in different technology areas, and we’re trying to support as many as we can. That’s a much longer effort, I think. I would suspect that the hydrogen effort if it — if the hydrogen economy really goes, we’ll pay dividends sooner than the small modular nuclear.

But those are the 2 biggest areas that we’re involved with right now. Now Graham is also supporting some of the biodiesel sustainable aircraft fuel — and that — those are more on the process side. So some of the heat exchanger vacuum equipment that the Graham has made for a long time, is being used in those plants also. So we’re covering quite a bit of the new energy space, and we’ll see which 1 really takes off here.

Bill Baldwin: And any specific comments on the cryogenic projects or types of activities going on there?

Daniel Thoren: Yes. So cryogenic…

Bill Baldwin: Is that part of hydrogen or part of…

Daniel Thoren: That’s hydrogen. Yes. So they’re using gas, hydrogen gas, and they’re also looking at liquid hydrogen for fuel and transport as well as some of the other carrier type fluids like ammonia. So all of that is being discussed about — in the distribution transportation of hydrogen yes, that’s where the cryogenic pumps come in for the liquid hydrogen.