MRC Global Inc., a distributor of pipe, valve and fitting products and services to the energy and industrial markets, ended 2021 with a nice boost in ecommerce sales.

For the year ended Dec. 31, Houston-based MRC reported that ecommerce accounted for 42% of total sales, compared with 35% of total sales in 2020.

In 2021, MRC Global posted total sales of $2.66 billion, up about 4% from $2.56 billion in 2020. Based on ecommerce shares of 42% and 35% of total sales in 2021 and 2020, respectively, Digital Commerce 360 estimates that ecommerce in 2021 grew 23.9% to $1.11 billion from $896 million in 2020.

Net loss was $14 million vs. $274 million in 2020. “We began to see an increase in maintenance and turnaround spending for the petroleum refining and chemical industries in the fourth quarter of 2021, much of it previously delayed due to the pandemic,” CEO Rob Saltiel told Wall Street analysts. “In 2022, we expect more significant improvement with our U.S. diet sector up double-digits.”

MRC carries and inventory of 250,000 SKUs, including an array of pipe valves fittings (PVF), oilfield supply, valve automation and modification, measurement, instrumentation, and other general and specialty products from a global network of more than 10,000 suppliers. “We serve approximately 10,000 customers through digital commerce applications and approximately 210 service locations, including regional distribution centers, service centers, corporate offices and third-party pipe yards, where we often deploy pipe near customer locations,” the company says in its recently filed annual report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

MRC also will continue to invest heavily in ecommerce in 2022, Saltiel  told analysts. “We expect our full-year 2022 capital spend to fall within a range of $10 million to $15 million as we continue to invest in ecommerce and system upgrades,” he said.

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