30.04.2015

Another positive quarter for Terex Cranes

Terex Cranes has reported a solid return to profitability in the first quarter on slightly lower revenues.

Total revenue were $386.9 million just under two percent down on the same quarter last year, while last year’s first quarter operating loss of $200,000 was turned into a $3.6 million profit for this year, building on that achieved in the fourth quarter. The backlog at the end of the quarter was $563.4 million, 16.3 percent lower than at the same point last year but 4.6 percent up on the quarter.

Terex as a whole saw revenues fall by almost 10 percent to $1.496 billion, while pre-tax profits for continuing operations fell from $43 million to $10.1 million. The net result was a loss of $2.1 million.

Chief executive Ron Defeo said: “Operationally the first quarter was generally in-line with our expectations in most of our businesses, and we are encouraged by our order and backlog trends. However, our overall results were weighed down by lower margins in our AWP segment and an unusually high tax rate. Our Cranes segment performed generally as planned for the first quarter. The order trends and product mix in backlog for this segment continue to suggest improvements as the year progresses. Although our tax rate was unusually high in the quarter due to the mix of earnings and losses by country, we expect our full year tax rate to be consistent with the guidance we provided in February.”

“The Company’s overall outlook for 2015 has not changed . We expect strong performance from our AWP segment and improvement from our other segments throughout the remainder of 2015. We reiterate our annual outlook for earnings per share of between $2.00 and $2.30, excluding restructuring and other unusual items, on net sales of between $6.2 billion and $6.6 billion.”

Vertikal Comment

Overall this is a mildly positive result from Terex, and although revenues are down slightly, this is most likely due to the weak euro leading to lower dollar input from its European All Terrain and tower crane operations.

The half year results will, of course be more indicative of how the crane business is developing as it faces stiffer completion from companies such as Tadano and Manitowoc. Not to mention Liebherr of course.