15.10.2015

Manitowoc downgrades forecasts

Manitowoc has announced preliminary third quarter results, and updated its full-year forecasts

The company expects crane revenues to end the year 15 to 20 percent lower than last year with lower tower and crawler crane sales in the quarter. This would relate to total revenues of around $1.85 to $1.95 billion.

For the group as a whole third quarter net sales are expected to be
approximately $863 million, compared to $986.3 million in the third quarter of 2014. Net earnings are expected to come in at around $5 million versus $73.1 million in the same period last year.

Chief executive Glen Tellock said: “Our Cranes business continues to be negatively impacted by a deteriorating demand environment, particularly in the Middle East and Asia. In addition, lower than anticipated tower and crawler crane shipments exacerbated the shortfall in revenues for the third quarter. We are taking a number of aggressive actions, including plant rationalisation and right-sizing the business, to offset this decline in demand. Based on third-quarter results, we now expect full-year crane revenues to be down 15 to 20 percent compared to 2014 and operating margins to be low single-digits.”

“On a more positive note, during the third quarter, we saw further improvement in our Foodservice business directly resulting from the corrective steps we took over the last year. The encouraging trends we saw in June continued through the quarter with operating margins returning to 2013 levels. As such, we are reaffirming our guidance for Foodservice revenues to be approximately flat for full-year 2015 when compared to 2014 and operating margins for 2015 to be mid-teens percentage.”