07.08.2018

Manitowoc maintains recovery

Manitowoc parent of Potain, Grove National Crane and Manitowoc crawler cranes, has reported its half years results with another strong quarter in terms of both revenue and profit growth.

Looking at the first six months, revenues were more than 25 percent higher than this time last year at $881.4 million, while last year’s pre-tax loss of $31.5 million was converted into a profit of $2.6 million this year. The company has confirmed a full year revenue forecast of $1.77 to $1.85 billion – 12 to 15 percent up on 2017.

Moving on to the second quarter, total sales were almost 26 percent higher at $495.3 million, but pre-tax profits almost tripled to $8.7 million. Order intake for the quarter was 14 percent higher than last year at $430.8 million, taking the backlog/order book at the end of June to $692.1 million, up 41 percent on this time last year.

Chief executive Barry Pennypacker said: “I am very pleased with our continuing momentum in delivering solid financial results using the principles of The Manitowoc Way. We achieved our fifth consecutive quarter of year over year improvement in adjusted EBITDA percentage, along with a 14 percent year-over-year increase in orders. Our product revolution is real, highlighted by the outstanding customer, dealer and investor feedback from our Crane Days event held in June at our Shady Grove manufacturing facility.”

“Key markets continue to show signs of recovery, particularly in North America. In spite of the well documented increased input costs such as tariffs and steel costs, we remain committed to delivering on our financial targets and transforming Manitowoc into a world class crane manufacturer while continuing to improve the returns for our shareholders.”

Vertikal Comment

Another good quarter from Manitowoc, the company has yet to say where it did particularly well this quarter, but it is most likely down to stronger sales of tower cranes and All Terrains, but with a strong domestic market, it will almost certainly have seen a pick up in Rough Terrain and truck crane deliveries.

The net result will be the best year since 2015 in terms of both revenues, and profitability. Whether the trend is sustainable through 2019 remains to be seen, much will depend on how its new models perform in the real world, and whether it can do better than the others in terms of deliveries with many manufacturers now reporting long lead times for certain cranes and supply chain challenges.

Another positive result