UPDATE 3-Harsco slashes FY10 adj profit view, shares slump

* Cuts FY10 adj EPS view to $0.80-0.90 from $1.55-$1.65

* Sees Q3 adj EPS $0.15-$0.20

* Q2 EPS $0.37 vs est. $0.38

* Revenue $786.5 mln vs est. $777.9 mln

* Shares touch 52-week low (Adds details, analyst comments, updates share movement)

By Megha Mandavia

BANGALORE, July 29 (Reuters) - Harsco Corp (HSC.N) posted a lower quarterly profit and cut its full-year adjusted earnings outlook due to weak non-residential construction activity and pricing pressures at its infrastructure segment, sending its shares down 21 percent to a 52-week low.

Extremely difficult end-market conditions in the infrastructure segment is expected to continue for both the third and fourth quarter, with operating losses expected in both," the company, a products and services provider to metal producers, said.

"Increased project deferrals, postponements and cancellations, as well as pricing pressures have significantly diminished our outlook for 2010," Harsco Chief Executive Salvatore Fazzolari said in a statement.

Harsco said it is experiencing unprecedented delays and cancellations, because companies are closely controlling every dollar that they spend.

"Cancellations from these particular customers are unprecedented and we have now no expectations of improvement in market conditions in remainder of 2010," Chief Financial Officer Stephen Schnoor said on a conference call with analysts.

The biggest factor probably is the inability of these builders to get their financing which is leading to project delays and cancellations, analyst Douglas Thomas of Jet Investment Research Co said.

"We really need to see a loosening of the purse strings on a part of big lenders, big banks and so forth, because at the end of the day if banks don't lend, the construction markets are dead," Thomas said.

Spending on U.S. non-residential construction is likely to fall more than 20 percent this year before recovering slightly in 2011, according to a semi-annual survey by an architects' trade group.

The American Institute of Architects cited an oversupply of non-residential facilities in most construction categories, weak demand for space, continuing declines in commercial property values and real estate lenders' reluctance to provide credit. [ID:nLDE66D1EU]

Q2 RESULTS MISS STREET

The company expects full-year adjusted earnings of 80 cents a share to 90 cents a share, down from its prior view of $1.55 per share to $1.65 per share.

Harsco expects third-quarter adjusted earnings of 15 cents per share to 20 cents per share.

Analysts on average were expecting earnings of 50 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

For the second quarter, Harsco reported net income of $29.7 million, or 37 cents a share, compared with $40.6 million, or 50 cents a share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose 1 percent to $786.5 million. Sales at the infrastructure business, which offers rental scaffolding and concrete forming solutions, fell 15 percent to $263 million.

The segment, which accounted for about 33 percent of total revenue for the quarter, saw a operating loss of $13.6 million, compared with the operating income of $24.9 million, a year ago.

Analysts on average were expecting earnings of 38 cents a share on revenue of $777.9 million.

Shares of the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based company touched a low of $21.15 Thursday morning on the New York Stock Exchange. They later recouped some losses and were trading down 13 percent at $23.37 in the afternoon trade. (Reporting by Megha Mandavia in Bangalore; Editing by Anne Pallivathuckal, Vyas Mohan)