22.03.2023

Tadano pick up continues

Tadano posted its third quarter results for the nine months to the end of December - the company is preparing to switch to a calendar year - and has also published an adjusted set of numbers for the 2022 calendar year. However it is very hard to compare with previous years in our data base so we have decided to stick with the nine months and will make the change to calendar year with the quarter to the end of March 2023. We are late publishing this item, but hopefully you will agree that it is better late than never.

Total revenues were ¥192.9 billion ($1.47 billion) - up 12.3 percent on the same period last year, pre-tax profits almost halved to ¥7.6 billion ($57.6 million) but this was entirely due to an exception gain last year of ¥10.2 billion ($77.1 million), without this the pre-tax profit has almost doubled.

The revenue breakdown by product was as follows:

Mobile cranes ¥128.75 billion ($973.7 million) +16.3%
Loader cranes ¥12.2 billion ($92.5 million) down 15.4%
Aerial work platforms ¥12.2 billion ($92.5 million) +6.4%
Other revenues ¥39.8 billion ($300.9 million) +12.9%

Geographic breakdown - Mobile cranes
Looking at the mobile crane shipments, export sales were almost 79% of the total at ¥101.4 billion ($766.9 million) an increase of 19.4 percent on the year. Sales of mobile cranes in Japan increased 6.1 percent to ¥27.3 billion ($206.7 million).

The regional breakdown of export sales was as follows:
Europe ¥31.5 billion ($238.6 million) +4.3%
North America ¥57 billion ($431.1 million) + 23.9%
South America ¥13.2 billion ($99.5 million) +9.4%
Middle East ¥8.8 billion ($66.7 million) +100%
Other ¥14.2 billion ($107.4 million) down 3.7%

Full year forecast 2023
Full calendar year forecast for 2023 is for 13% growth to ¥270 billion - just over $2 billion - reflecting further pick up in what was the fourth fiscal quarter and for the start to the new financial year.

Vertikal Comment

These look very positive in trend terms, although there is still much to be done to properly digest the Demag acquisition. This can be seen mostly in Europe, where Demag was a more significant player. Tadano is currently talking to leadership candidates, and is on the verge of appointing a new general manager for its UK business. As to the overall European operation it would benefit from a strong local chief executive with direct European crane market experience and solid customer contacts.

In North America the company looks like it is on a roll, building on what it has achieved over the past five years or so, and now has strong new products coming on stream, such as new RTs and the two new truck cranes, not to mention the growing locally built telescopic crawler crane line.

However, if the aim is truly to be global market leader, the company needs to rekindle its lattice crawler business which has fallen behind in comparison to Liebherr and Kobelco. The trouble is, this will require substantial investment in both upfront monetary terms as well as development time and resources.

Tadano has the attitude, the capability and long term vision to make it happen, but it is none the less a daunting task.

That said the company has managed perfectly well without lattice crawlers in the past, and market leadership is not everything.

In terms of its main business Tadano is showing signs of regaining its mojo.