(Reuters) -Industrial conglomerate Emerson Electric Co posted a rise in quarterly profit on Wednesday, helped by strong demand for its automation systems as well as its valves and instruments across sectors.
Companies across North America have been rushing to add robots to their assembly lines to keep up with strong demand at a time when many of them have struggled to lure back workers displaced by the pandemic.
Sales at Emerson’s Automation Solutions unit, its biggest business catering to sectors from utility and mining to chemicals and automotive, rose 4.2% to $2.81 billion.
St. Louis, Missouri-based Emerson, which began life as a seller of fans and electric motors a century ago, has been pivoting more towards technology solutions to capitalize on an evolving industrial software market.
Its divisions that cater primarily to commercial and residential markets rose 13% to $1.67 billion.
The company’s net income rose to $896 million, or $1.50 per share, in the quarter ended Dec. 31, from $445 million, or 74 cents per share, a year earlier.
Net revenue rose 8% to $4.5 billion in Emerson’s first quarter.
(Reporting by Aishwarya Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M.)
