Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our first question is from the line of Paul Mammola from Sidoti & Company.
Paul Mammola - Sidoti & Company
I think obviously the biggest eye-opener on the page is the Electrical Products operating margin and Paul and Terry, you both went through a few reasons why that is up so big. I’m trying to get a sense of what is the biggest contributors, is it pricing, the restructuring efforts or the contract terms you have seen so far?
Paul Jones
Paul, it’s a lot of things and we’re not going to start going through the list on a priority basis, that will be giving too much information to our competitors, but yes we are benefiting from the mix adjustment relative to the targeted actions that we’ve said we were going to be doing and it’s now that that those actions are showing up on the income statement and I’m equally pleased with all the other things going on to -- with 9.3% margin, it is certainly better that what we’ve done in recent history, but that’s not an acceptable number to us long-term. So, we’re still working on all the pieces of the equation to get the margins up there for us and be able to sustain them.
Paul Mammola - Sidoti & Company
So, would you say that you’re ahead of schedule? In a low cost steel environment, are you ahead of schedule from the 200 basis points addition to the operating margin you forecasted for ’09?
Paul Jones
I don’t think we have a low cost steel environment. I think one in the future, but yeah if we could normalize for that. The team is exceeding the original plan.
Paul Mammola – Sidoti & Company
Okay, and do you have a motor sales growth number for China, I know you have putout the Water Products number?
Terry Murphy
Double-digit
Paul Jones
Its double-digits, continues to be. We are just in the interest of gravity we didn’t put all that in there, but we continue to be as excited about the motor business in China. Throughout the water heater business, it’s rapidly growing this is the commercial hermetic for people on the phone who that are not familiar with it. It’s continuing to grow and that’s a product that we sell around the world. I think the U.S. is now our number four market for that product, we sell more of it in Asia, Middle East and Europe that we do in the U.S.
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »
