After a $1.4 million net loss in Q2 2010, Vancouver, Washington-based pipe manufacturer Northwest Pipe recorded earnings of $5.4 million in Q2 2011. Sales during the quarter soared almost 50 percent to $143.8 million in Q2 2011 and average selling prices rose by double-digits.

Water Transmission sales increased by 32.8 percent to $74.5 million in Q2 due to a 16 percent increase in average selling prices and a 14 percent increase in volume. In Northwest Pipe's tubular products segment, sales jumped 73.1 percent to $69.3 million driven by a 48 percent increase in tons, and a 17 percent increase in average per ton selling prices. Nonetheless, gross tubular profits of $5.9 million were tempered by higher steel costs as selling prices did not increase as rapidly as steel costs in Q2.

In a press release Friday, Northwest Pipe said that the most significant increase in demand was for energy pipe, resulting from increases in natural gas and oil drilling operations, which allowed the company to utilize additional capacity brought into production in Bossier City, Louisiana over the course of 2010