Grainger, Chicago, IL, No. 3 on the MDM’s top 40 industrial distributors, reported sales for the second quarter were $1.78 billion, an increase of 16 percent versus second quarter 2009. Profit increased 40 percent to $129 million. For the first six months, sales were $3.46 billion, up 21.3 percent over the prior year period. Profit also increased 21.3 percent to $229.1 million. More

Genuine Parts Company, Atlanta, GA, reported sales for the second quarter ended June 30, 2010, were $2.8 billion, up 12 percent from the second quarter 2009. Profit was $124.5 million, up 20 percent. By segment, sales for industrial distributor Motion Industries were up 26 percent for the quarter. EIS, the electrical group, had a sales increase of 32 percent. The Automotive Group‘s sales went up 7 percent. S.P. Richards, the Office Products Group, ended the quarter down 1 percent. More

The Fastenal Company, Winona, MN, reported second-quarter sales of $571.2 million, an increase of 20.3 percent over the same period a year ago. Profit improved 58.9 percent to $69.2 million. More

Air Products, Lehigh Valley, PA, has increased its offer to purchase the outstanding shares of Radnor, PA-based Airgas, Inc. to $63.50 per share in cash, an increase of $3.50 per share over its initial offer of $60 per share and an increase of $1.50 over the last offer. The revised offer represents a 46 percent premium. The Airgas Board of Directors responded to the new offer, saying it “will review the revised tender offer to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interests of the Company and its stockholders. Airgas stockholders are advised to take no action at this time pending the review of the revised offer.” More

U.K.-based Travis Perkins has agreed to buy The BSS Group, a distributor to specialist trades including HVAC and plumbing, for £557.6 million (US$846.5 million). The acquisition will create the largest plumbing and heating trade and retail distribution business and the largest building materials dealer in the U.K. More

WinWholesale Inc., Dayton, OH, has opened Windustrial brand companies in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to provide contractors with a complete line of pipe, valves, fittings and fire protection equipment. The New Jersey location is the first Win company in the state. More

US LBM Holdings subsidiary East Haven Builders Supply, East Haven, CT, has acquired Millwood Lumber according to ProSales magazine. The full-service lumber yard has one location, serving the New York metro area and Westchester and Fairfield counties. More

Border States Electric, Fargo, ND, No. 9 on MDM’s top 25 electrical distributors, sold its Juarez, Mexico, branch to ABSA del Norte, S.A. de C.V. and exited the Mexico market. The sale was completed on June 30, 2010. ABSA is an electrical distributor headquartered in Mexico with an existing branch in Juarez. In 2002, BSE sold its Chihuahua, Mexico, branch to this same company. More

United Stationers Supply Co., Deerfield, IL, has created a Shared Services (SS) Transportation and Logistics Group that will centralize transportation services for the company’s United Stationers Supply, LagasseSweet, and ORS Nasco subsidiaries. More

The Timken Company, Canton, OH, has agreed to acquire QM Bearings and Power Transmission, Inc., Ferndale, WA. QM manufactures spherical roller bearing steel housed units and elastomeric and steel couplings used in demanding processes such as sawmill and logging operations. More

Dallas, TX-based Flowserve Corp., a manufacturer of fluid motion and control products, has acquired Valbart Srl, a privately owned Italian manufacturer of trunnion-mounted ball valves used primarily in the oil and gas industry. More

Atlas Copco, Stockholm, Sweden, reported second quarter sales of SEK 17.4 billion (US$2.35 billion), an increase of 8 percent over the prior year. Sales increased organically 9 percent. Profit for the period was SEK 2.52 billion (US$343 million), up 72 percent. More

The manufacturing recovery continues to trend upward and has rebounded from severely depressed levels in 2009, according to the quarterly Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI Survey on the Business Outlook – June 2010, a leading indicator for the industrial sector. The June 2010 composite index rose to a record high 81 percent from 78 percent reported in the March 2010 report, breaking the previous high of 80 percent set in June 2004 and marks the third straight quarter it has reached 50 percent or above. The index started as a quarterly series in 1991. More

Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes declined for a second consecutive month in July to its lowest level since April of 2009, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) released today. The HMI fell two points from a downwardly revised number in the previous month to 14 for July. “Builders are reporting continuing consumer hesitancy regarding home purchases due to uncertainty in the overall economy and job markets,” said NAHB Chairman Bob Jones, a home builder from Bloomfield Hills, Mich. More

Wholesale prices fell 0.5 percent in June, seasonally adjusted, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. This decrease followed declines of 0.3 percent in May and 0.1 percent in April. More

Canadian manufacturing sales increased for the eighth time in nine months, advancing 0.4 percent to $44.8 billion in May, Statistics Canada reported. The motor vehicle and parts industries were the primary contributors to the higher sales. Excluding motor vehicle and parts, total manufacturing sales edged down 0.1 percent. Higher sales were reported in 9 of 21 industries, representing 48.9 percent of total sales. More

Sales of power transmission/motion control products by U.S. manufacturers sales rose 2.0 percent while sales by Canadian manufacturers dropped 13.1 percent according to May 2010 sales data released by the Power Transmission Distributors Association in its Market Outlook Report. More

May U.S. manufacturing technology consumption was $178.34 million, according to the American Machine Tool Distributors’ Association and the Association for Manufacturing Technology. This total, as reported by companies participating in the USMTC program, was down 22.9 percent from April but up 58.6% from the total of $112.42 million reported for May 2009. With a year-to-date total of $966.63 million, 2010 is up 52.9 percent compared with 2009. More