Northwest Pipe Company NWPX

Competitive advantage analysis · industrials

Corporate Default
Overall moat score
72/100
Moderate

About Northwest Pipe Company

NWPX Infrastructure, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of water-related infrastructure products in North America and Canada. It operates through two segments, Engineered Steel Pressure Pipe (SPP) and Precast Infrastructure and Engineered Systems (Precast). The SPP segment provides large-diameter and high-pressure steel pipeline systems for use in water infrastructure applications, which are primarily related to … Full NWPX analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • Margins Stable Across Cycles Operating margin volatility is low (stability score 0.95), demonstrating pricing resilience across cycles.
  • Strong Interest Coverage & Conservative Leverage Debt serviceability is strong (score 0.70), with robust interest coverage.

The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.

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Pricing Power

Strong
78

Where NWPX ranks in Metal Fabrication

Northwest Pipe Company ranks #4 of 20 scored companies in Metal Fabrication by moat score — the top 20%. The widest moat in the group is Mueller Industries, Inc. (MLI) at 83/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near NWPX in Metal Fabrication
# Company Moat score Rating
1 Mueller Industries, Inc. MLI 83/100 Strong
2 CompoSecure, Inc. CMPO 76/100 Strong
3 Carpenter Technology Corporatio CRS 75/100 Strong
4 Northwest Pipe Company NWPX 72/100 Moderate
5 ESAB Corporation ESAB 71/100 Moderate
6 CompoSecure, Inc. CMPOW 70/100 Moderate
7 ATI Inc. ATI 70/100 Moderate
8 Proto Labs, Inc. PRLB 63/100 Moderate
9 Worthington Enterprises, Inc. WOR 56/100 Moderate

See every General Corporate company ranked by moat score →

How NWPX scores on the Corporate Default defenses

Pricing Power

Score 78 · 20% of the moat score

Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.

Cost Advantage

Score 70 · 15% of the moat score

A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.

Customer Stickiness

Score 72 · 15% of the moat score

Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.

Capital Efficiency

Score 69 · 18% of the moat score

Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.

Resilience

Score 73 · 17% of the moat score

Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.

Scale & Market Position

Score 70 · 15% of the moat score

Scale matters only when it converts into economics.

How each Corporate Default defense is measured, in full →

Understanding NWPX's moat

What is Northwest Pipe Company's moat score?

Northwest Pipe Company (NWPX) scores 72 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #4 of 20 scored companies in Metal Fabrication, the top 20%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 19 companies in Metal Fabrication. Its strongest defense is Pricing Power (78/100) and its weakest is Capital Efficiency (69/100).

How does Northwest Pipe Company compare with other Metal Fabrication companies?

Northwest Pipe Company ranks #4 of 20 scored companies in Metal Fabrication by moat score. The widest moat in Metal Fabrication is Mueller Industries, Inc. (MLI) at 82/100. The companies ranked closest are Carpenter Technology Corporatio (CRS) at 75 just above it and ESAB Corporation (ESAB) at 71 just below it.

How is the moat score calculated?

Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 19 companies in Metal Fabrication. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.

Why is Northwest Pipe Company scored with the Corporate Default template?

Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.

Which competitive defenses are measured for Northwest Pipe Company?

The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and NWPX scores: Pricing Power (78), Cost Advantage (70), Customer Stickiness (72), Capital Efficiency (69), Resilience (73), Scale & Market Position (70). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.

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