Lufkin Industries is an American manufacturing company founded in 1902 and headquartered in

Missouri City, Texas Missouri City is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, within the metropolitan area. The city is mostly in Fort Bend County, with a small portion in Harris County. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 74,259, up from 67,3 ...

. Lufkin is a provider of rod lift products, automated control and optimization equipment and software for rod lift equipment to the oil and gas industry. It was an independent company until being acquired by GE Oil & Gas in July 2013, which later merged with Baker Hughes to create

Baker Hughes Baker Hughes Company, organized in Delaware and headquartered in Houston, is one of the world's largest oil field services companies. The company provides products and services for oil well drilling, formation evaluation, completion, produc ...

, a GE Company (BHGE). On June 30, 2020, KPS Capital Partners, LP completed its previously announced acquisition of Lufkin from Baker Hughes.

History

In 1902, The Lufkin Foundry and Machine Company was founded in

Lufkin, Texas Lufkin is the largest city in Angelina County, Texas and the county seat. The city is situated in Deep East Texas and about 60 miles west of the Texas-Louisiana border. Its estimated population is 35,021 as of July 1, 2019. Lufkin was founde ...

in 1902 to operate a

machine shop A machine shop or engineering workshop (UK) is a room, building, or company where machining, a form of subtractive manufacturing, is done. In a machine shop, machinists use machine tools and cutting tools to make parts, usually of metal or pla ...

to repair sawmill machinery. The company soon began manufacturing sawmill equipment and repairing locomotives. As the lumber industry declined in

East Texas East Texas is a broadly defined cultural, geographic, and ecological region in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Texas that comprises most of 41 counties. It is primarily divided into Northeast and Southeast Texas. Most of the region co ...

, the company expanded into the manufacture of oil drilling and refinery equipment. In the 1930s the company established an iron foundry and began manufacturing truck

trailers Trailer may refer to: a Transportation * Trailer (vehicle), an unpowered vehicle pulled by a powered vehicle ** Bicycle trailer, a wheeled frame for hitching to a bicycle to tow cargo or passengers ** Full-trailer ** Semi-trailer **Horse traile ...

and gears for industrial equipment. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the company specialized in manufacturing gears for use in military vehicles. After the war, sales of oil equipment slowed, but sales of trailers and industrial gears did better. The company had conflicts with organized labor in the 1950s and much of the 1960s. In 1970 the company's name was changed to Lufkin Industries, and three divisions were established: Machinery, Trailer, and Automotive/Industrial Supplies. The company prospered in the 1970s, growing to 3,800 employees and annual sales of over $364 million by the early 1980s. In 2013, Lufkin was acquired by

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable ene ...

for $3.3 billion. On June 30, 2020, Lufkin once again became an independent company with Baker Hughes divesting its Rod Lift Systems business. The former Lufkin Power Transmission Division (Lufkin Gears LLC) remains with Baker Hughes as an Independent Business Line under its Turbomachinery & Process Solutions product company.

Operations

Oil equipment

Lufkin's main focus is in the oil and gas equipment industry. Lufkin produces fully automated rod lifts and other forms of artificial lift that are designed to extract oil and natural gas from hard to reach

oil reservoir A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations. Such reservoirs form when kerogen (ancient plant matter) is created in surrounding rock by the presence ...

References

GE Annual Report 2013
{{Authority control Companies based in Texas American companies established in 1902 1902 establishments in Texas Lufkin, Texas