As such, we expect fourth quarter SPP revenue to be in line with the fourth quarter of 2022, but with some downward pressure on gross margins. I’d also like to add that we remain encouraged by the amount of activity we’re seeing on our current and upcoming water transmission projects. As we are currently expecting a larger bidding year in 2024. For a more complete review of the projects, please review our investor presentation, which can be found on the Investor tab of our website within the Events and Presentations section. In our Precast business, we anticipate macroeconomic factors to continue to weigh on our volume. As a result, our Precast revenue in the fourth quarter is expected to be modestly down from the prior year period, with margins that are down from 2022 record hires, but similar to what we’ve seen in the second and third quarter of 2023.
We continue to believe our Precast business is well positioned to benefit longer term given the significant level of pent-up demand specifically for residential housing, a growing need for infrastructure spending in the United States and our strong market position. In summary, I’d like to thank our team for the continued solid execution against our strategic plan to drive enhanced shareholder value and long-term profitable growth. With our nationwide footprint and as an industry leader in this space, we are well positioned to participate in the increasing amount of water infrastructure projects required to support the increasing U.S. population in the years to come. As a result, our goal remains for our Precast related business to grow to our similar size as our SPP business.
Looking ahead, we will remain focused on: one, finalizing the integration of ParkUSA as quickly as efficiently as possible; two, persistently focus on margin over volume; three, continuing to implement cost reductions and efficiencies at all levels of the company, four, continuing to identify strategic growth opportunities for the company once we’ve completed the integration work with ParkUSA; and five in the absence of M&A opportunities, returning value to our stockholders through opportunistic share repurchases. Thank you to our dedicated team at Northwest Pipe for your continued persistence and execution against our growth strategy and for operating safely. I will now turn the call over to Aaron, who will walk through our financial results in greater detail.
Aaron Wilkins: Thank you, Scott, and good morning, everyone. I’ll begin today with an overview of our third quarter profitability. Consolidated net income for the third quarter was $5.8 million or $0.58 per diluted share compared to $10 million or $0.99 per diluted share in the third quarter of 2022. Consolidated net sales decreased 3.5% to $118.7 million compared to $123 million in the year ago quarter. Steel Pressure Pipe segment sales decreased 3.8% to $80.5 million compared to $83.7 million in the third quarter of 2022. The decrease, which Scott discussed earlier, was driven largely by customer-driven contract changes as well as other anomalies that impacted production timing. This resulted in a 13% decrease in tons produced, which was partially offset by an 11% increase in selling price per ton, primarily due to product mix.
Precast segment sales decreased 2.8% and to $38.2 million compared to $39.3 million in the third quarter of 2022, primarily due to an 8% decrease in selling prices due to reduced demand, which was partially offset by a 6% increase in volume shipped due to changes in product mix. Due to the unique nature of the products we manufacture, shipment volumes in the case of Precast and production volumes in the case of SPP and the corresponding sales prices for both segments do not always provide comparable metrics between periods as they are highly dependent on the composition of the mix of our products. Consolidated gross profit decreased 23.2% to $19.3 million or 16.3% of sales compared to $25.1 million or 20.4% of sales in the third quarter of 2022.
Steel Pressure Pipe gross profit decreased 23.1% to $10.9 million or 13.6% of segment sales. This compared to gross profit of $14.2 million or 17% of segment sales in the third quarter of 2022, primarily due to contract changes and project timing delays. It’s important to note that while timing delays are typical for the Steel Pressure Pipe business, the magnitude of these changes reduced revenue and production efficiencies at certain plants resulting in a significant variance from our expectations for the third quarter. Precast gross profit decreased 23.2% to $8.4 million or 21.9% of Precast sales from $10.9 million or 27.8% of segment sales in the third quarter of 2022, primarily due to changes in product mix. We have seen our commercial construction Precast markets decrease.
However, our residential Precast markets have held up better to the current pressures from the broader economy. Selling, general and administrative expenses decreased 3.9% to $10.2 million or 8.7% of sales compared to $10.7 million in the third quarter of 2022 and or 8.6% of sales. The decrease was primarily due to $2 million in lower incentive and compensation expense, partially offset by $0.9 million in higher professional services, including ERP implementation fees and $0.7 million in higher base compensation and benefits expense. For the full year of 2023, we expect our consolidated selling, general and administrative expenses to be approximately $44 million. Depreciation and amortization expense in the third quarter of 2023 was $4 million compared to $4.3 million in the year ago quarter, and I currently expect the quarterly run rate to continue at a similar pace.
Our noncash incentive compensation expenses were $0.7 million and $1.2 million in the third quarter of 2023 and 2022, respectively. Interest expense increased to $1.2 million compared to $1 million in the third quarter of 2022. We continue to hedge approximately half of our exposure to variable interest rates using interest rate swaps. Due to the dramatic increase in the risk-free interest rates compared to the year ago quarter, our interest costs increased even though our average debt balance decreased from the third quarter of 2022. We expect interest expense of approximately $5 million for full year 2023. Our third quarter income tax expense was $2 million, resulting in an effective income tax rate of 25.7% and compared to $3.6 million in the prior year quarter or an effective income tax rate of 26.3%.
Our tax rates for the third quarter of 2023 and 2022 were impacted by nondeductible permanent differences. We continue to expect our tax rate for full year 2023 to range between 25% and 26%. Now, I will transition to our financial condition. We generated net cash provided by operating activities of $16.9 million in the third quarter of 2023 compared to $15.3 million in the third quarter of 2022 due to changes in working capital partially offset by lower net income adjusted for noncash items. Our capital expenditures totaled $4.9 million in the third quarter of 2023 compared to $3.3 million in the third quarter of 2022. We anticipate our total CapEx to be in the range of $18 million to $21 million for full year 2023. As of September 30, 2023, we had $58.1 million of outstanding borrowings on our credit facility, leaving approximately $66 million in additional borrowing capacity on our credit line.
