A recent survey points to rapid growth in Internet commerce over the next two years in the industrial-supply business.

Wilson Industries, a subsidiary of Smith International, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all the net assets of Houston-based Van Leeuwen Pipe and Tube Corp.

The business-research firm The Freedonia Group projects U.S. demand for industrial valves to rise 3.8% annually to $12 billion in 2004.

Plotkin Bros. Supply (Glassport, Pa.) has signed a letter of intent to join USFlow.

Few would argue that technology has had - and will continue to have - enormous impact on the way business is done. But the expanded use of technology and increased reliance on integrated-supply does not represent a threat to distributors.

The joint venture McJunkin-Cambar Corp. has reached an agreement to acquire the electrical business of McJunkin Corp.

Affiliated Distributors and supplyFORCE.com have joined forces with the 64-member industrial-supply cooperative I.D. ONE.

Master distributor Smith-Cooper International has acquired Flo-Rite Products Co., a Vancouver, Wash.-based distributor of valves and accessories.

The Piping Connection, an industrial-PVF buying and marketing cooperative formed in mid-1997, has joined forces with C.L. Watt, its counterpart for plumbing, heating and air conditioning distributors.

Ferguson Enterprises has expanded its presence in the Midwest through its recent acquisition of Donovan Industrial Supply Corp., St. Louis.