11.11.2016

Losses mount at Manitex

Crane and access manufacturer Manitex has reported a rough third quarter in terms of sales and profits.

Total revenue for the nine months to the end of September was $260.7 million almost six percent down on this time last year. The fall came from Manitex boom trucks, and PM loader cranes offset by higher sales of marine handling equipment. Last year’s pre tax loss of $260,000 was converted into a loss of $5.77 million this year. Much of this due to restructuring costs related to substantial changes and capacity reduction programmes.

Looking at the third quarter, revenues dropped over 12 percent to $74.1 million, of this the lifting equipment division was $47.9 million also down by just over 12 percent. Due lower sales of Manitex boom trucks, lower PM loader crane sales in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, partially offset by high PM sales in North America, Western Europe and Italy. ASV the other big segment was also lower. The loss before tax was $3.7 million, compared to a loss in the same quarter last year of $751,000.

Chief executive David Langevin said: “Despite facing extremely challenging conditions in the bulk of our markets, we are managing our business portfolio prudently and taking all the necessary actions to position Manitex for future growth, with our variable cost operational model continuing to provide the ability for us to flex and generate cash. On a non-GAAP basis, we are pleased to say that we’ve turned a profit for the quarter compared to a loss in last year’s period with the bulk of our loss coming from restructuring and asset impairment charges. As planned and as we’ve communicated, we have implemented cost reductions that are once again ahead of plan for the year, we have brought down our debt, rationalised our production schedules to match our order rate, and we’ve divested one of our non-core, product lines. We’ve worked hard to improve our competitive position in the market place and we believe we have seen market share gains in our core businesses. The global market for new cranes and equipment, as has widely been reported, remains at historically low levels in terms of unit volumes and sales, so as this persists, we will continue with our necessary responses, by implementing working capital reductions, business optimisation and debt reductions, with possible non-strategic subsidiary sales to come and working hard to stimulate sales as the economy will allow. Although our order rate remains at depressed levels, there are signs that some level of recovery may be ahead as our quote rate has progressively increased over the last few months.”

“We continue to concentrate our resources on expanding the distribution of PM in North America and reactivating the ASV independent dealer network, which now stands at 126 dealers, from zero just 18 months ago, across the continent. While ASV revenues were slightly off, the group’s operating margins were more than two percentage points ahead of where they were in last year’s same quarter, and we believe that we’ll continue to see a benefit from margin improvements in this group, which remains a source of increasing value within the Manitex portfolio. Business in our main straight mast crane market, remains extremely soft, but fortunately, the knuckle crane market which we entered with the purchase of PM Group in early 2015, has not suffered to the same degree and as a result we are seeing some positive offset from PM, particularly in Europe. Also as planned, subsequent to the end of the quarter, we announced the launch of a Manitex-branded knuckle boom product line, which is additionally being built here in our Georgetown, TX facility, establishing our presence as the only domestic assembler of a full line of knuckle boom cranes, parts, and service, with the PL74 model now being shipped to a number of North American dealers.”