Industrial Backlogs Lean Toward Power and Mining Over Data Centers

On November 9, 2026, CECO Environmental (CECO) and Ferguson Enterprises (FERG) said on their third-quarter earnings calls that power generation and process-industry projects, not data centers, make up most of their industrial backlogs. Gas and nuclear power, refining, mining and chemical work lead both order books, and about 80% of CECO's backlog is unrelated to data centers. [1][2]

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Why new power plants and process expansions need suppliers like CECO and Ferguson

A new gas-fired power plant or an expanded refining unit needs far more than its main machinery. Gas-turbine exhaust has to pass through selective catalytic reduction (SCR), which uses a catalyst to turn nitrogen oxides into nitrogen and water, before it meets emissions limits. The plant also needs acoustic silencing, inlet filtration, heat trace (heating cables wrapped around pipes to prevent freezing), pumps, valves and pipe. CECO makes emissions-control, acoustic and filtration equipment and added heat trace through its Thermon acquisition. Ferguson distributes pipe, valves and fittings to industrial customers in the US. [1][2]

Owners order this equipment before a project starts up, so a supplier's backlog reflects projects that are already approved and funded. CECO said on its call that some investors are asking about industrial suppliers' exposure to data-center spending, and it answered that its backlog consists of funded, permitted and active projects. [1] If most orders come from utilities and process industries, a slowdown in data-center investment would have only a limited direct effect on these suppliers' order books.

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CECO and Ferguson backlogs lean toward power and process industries

CECO ended the third quarter with a backlog of about $2.2 billion, roughly 80% from multi-industrial and energy applications and about 20% tied to data centers. By project type, power generation is about 60%, covering gas and nuclear utilities, industrial heat and power, and power for data centers. The remaining 40% spans semiconductors, natural gas processing and transport, hydrocarbon and chemical processing, process electrification, and industrial water treatment. [1] Because the power-generation share includes data-center power projects, the two splits cannot simply be added together. Management guided 2027 revenue to $2.1 billion to $2.3 billion and adjusted EBITDA to $475 million to $525 million. [1]

Ferguson's industrial customer group grew 55% in the third quarter, with 32% organic growth. CEO Kevin Murphy said the real drivers of large industrial capital projects were power and power generation, refining, and mining, and that maintenance work at power plants was also a meaningful source of organic growth. CFO Bill Brundage said open orders and backlog in the industrial business continue to build and accelerate. [2] For reference, in December 2025 Ferguson estimated that large capital projects were mid-to-high single digits as a percentage of total company revenue, with data centers a bit over half of that. [3]

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Diversified order sources limit the direct hit from a data-center slowdown

Utilities, power producers, refiners and miners decide most of the orders these two suppliers receive. These customers are building new gas units, extending the life of nuclear plants, running existing plants harder, and funding capacity and reliability work at refineries and mines. Once those projects are approved and funded, they convert into equipment revenue over time. CECO CEO Todd Gleason said the need for power is not tied to one thing, and that even if some markets become somewhat less attractive, the need for power does not seem to be modulating much. [1]

Part of the new power demand comes from data centers, so the two cannot be fully separated. CECO counts data-center power projects inside its power-generation backlog, and Flowserve said data centers have been a large part of incremental power demand. [1][4] Electrical distributors still lean more heavily on data centers: WESCO (WCC) said third-quarter data-center sales rose 55% to about 23% of trailing-twelve-month sales, while non-data-center sales grew 7%. [5] Metrics to track next include the data-center share of CECO's backlog, Ferguson's industrial organic growth, and whether power-equipment makers keep growing power-generation bookings.

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Companies exposed to the same shift

• Flowserve (FLS): Flowserve supplies pumps, valves and seals to power plants and faces the same gas and nuclear projects as CECO. Third-quarter original-equipment bookings rose 17% to $656 million, power bookings rose 23%, and nuclear bookings exceeded $115 million, but it has no disclosed supply relationship with CECO or Ferguson. [4]
• Argan (AGX): Argan is an engineering and construction contractor that builds gas-fired power plants, the projects that sit upstream of CECO's emissions and flow equipment. About 80% of its $2.5 billion backlog is natural-gas plants, including four US projects totaling more than 4.1 GW, though the backlog has fallen from $2.9 billion. [6]
• Fuel Tech (FTEK): Fuel Tech supplies SCR systems for new gas turbines, the same product category as CECO's power-generation emissions business. Its air pollution control backlog reached $14.3 million at the end of June 2026, the highest since 2018, though it is far smaller than CECO's. [7]

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Sources

[1] Drillr · CECO Environmental (CECO) · 2026-11-09 · Q3 2026 earnings call

"Approximately 80% of our backlog relates to multi-industrial and energy applications, with approximately 20% related to data center applications."

[2] Drillr · Ferguson Enterprises (FERG) · 2026-11-09 · Q3 2026 earnings call

[3] Drillr · Ferguson Enterprises (FERG) · 2025-12-09 · Earnings call

[4] Drillr · Flowserve (FLS) · 2026-10-29 · Q3 2026 earnings call

[5] Drillr · WESCO International (WCC) · 2026-10-29 · Q3 2026 earnings call summary

[6] Drillr · Argan (AGX) · 2026-09-02 · Q2 fiscal 2027 earnings call

[7] Drillr · Fuel Tech (FTEK) · 2026-08-05 · Q2 2026 earnings call

This article highlights industry changes and companies that may be overlooked. It is not a stock recommendation.