Utilities are still buying steel structures as fast as Valmont Industries can make them. Telecom carriers aren’t. The Omaha manufacturer said Oct. 20 that North America Utility sales rose 23% in the third quarter to $469.6 million, while North America telecommunications sales fell to $54.9 million from $82.9 million, a drop of about 34%.
Total net sales rose 5.5% to $1.10 billion, and net earnings climbed to $121.1 million, or $6.24 a share, from $99 million, according to Valmont’s third-quarter earnings release. The company raised full-year adjusted earnings guidance to $22.75 to $23.75 a share and kept its sales outlook of $4.3 billion to $4.45 billion.
Grid spending drives Valmont’s utility growth
Valmont credited both higher pricing and higher volumes for the utility gain. That business makes the poles and structures utilities use for transmission and distribution lines, and it’s now the biggest single piece of the company. Infrastructure backlog stood at $1.81 billion at the end of September, up from $1.55 billion at the end of 2025. Total backlog passed $2 billion.
Most of the $45.6 million Valmont spent on capital projects in the quarter went to expanding utility capacity, though the release doesn’t say where. Full-year capital spending guidance stays at $170 million to $200 million. It isn’t the only one adding capacity: Nucor is putting another $105 million into its Crawfordsville, Ind., utility pole plant.
Steel and zinc costs squeeze infrastructure margins
Infrastructure operating income rose to $154.8 million, but the margin slipped to 17.6% from 17.8%. Valmont blamed steel and zinc, the two inputs that define a galvanized pole. CEO Avner Applbaum said the company is “taking pricing actions and applying contractual pass-throughs to recover higher steel and zinc costs.”
Utilities and line contractors on those contracts will see it on future invoices. With hot-rolled steel prices climbing through October, the pass-throughs aren’t likely to shrink soon.
Telecom tower spending is the weak spot
Valmont said telecom volumes were “significantly lower” because carriers shifted capital priorities and cut spending. For tower and small-cell contractors, that’s the warning in this report. Lighting and transportation sales slipped to $127.5 million from $130.4 million, while coatings rose 13.8%.
Agriculture fell 6.4% to $226 million on a 25.3% drop overseas, though North American irrigation sales grew 15.8%.
The split is the trend. Power delivery is soaking up steel, fabrication capacity and capital budgets, and the wireless carriers have stepped back. For anyone bidding line work in 2027, watch that $1.81 billion infrastructure backlog. It grew about $260 million in nine months, and the steel inside it keeps getting more expensive.