30.04.2025
Weak start for JLG
JLG/Hinowa/Ausa, that make up the Oshkosh 'Access Segment', has reported a steep fall in revenues and profits for the first quarter.
Total Revenues
Total revenues for the three months to the end of March crashed 22.5 percent to $957 million, due to lower sales in North America and higher discount levels, offset in part by sales related to the acquisition of Ausa.
The revenues were made up as follows:
Aerial work platforms - $450 million -24%
Telehandlers - $244.5 million -30%
Other revenues - $261.8 -4%
Total - $957.1 million -22.5%
The company booked a total of $940 million in new orders during the quarter, compared to $1.26 billion in the same quarter last year.
Operating profit plunged 50.5 percent to $103.1 million, compared to a 54 percent jump in the same quarter last year. this was due, the company says, to a combination of lower sales volumes, higher discounts, higher operating expenses, unfavourable manufacturing absorption and higher new product development spending, offset in part by favourable customer mix.
The Order book/backlog at the end of March stood at $1.8 billion, down 57 percent on this point last year, but only slightly lower than at the start of this year.
Oshkosh
Oshkosh revenues declined 9.1 percent due to the lower access sector sales, while pre-tax profit slumped 36 percent to $150.9 million.
Chief executive John Pfeifer said “We are pleased with our start to 2025, led by strong performance in our Vocational segment, double digit margins in our Access segment and solid progress on the ramp up of Next Generation Delivery Vehicle production. Adjusted earnings per share of $1.92 was in line with our expectations of approximately $2.00 per share,”
“We are closely monitoring the international trade environment, which has evolved rapidly and is likely to remain dynamic. We believe in the underlying trajectory of our operational performance across our company, which would have kept us on track to deliver our full year adjusted earnings per share guidance of approximately $11.00 excluding the headwinds caused by the recent tariff announcements.”
“Based on announced tariffs and current market conditions, we estimate that the direct adverse impact of tariffs, net of mitigation efforts, could be in the range of $1.00 per share for 2025. We anticipate that companywide cost reduction actions will partially offset the impact of tariffs by up to $0.50 per share.”
Vertikal Comment
This is surprisingly steep decline for JLG, but there again most of the feedback we have received suggests that North American sales declined steeply in the fourth quarter, exasperated by the increasingly volatile economic situation as the first quarter got underway. JLG appeared to have focused more on this market area through much of last year, possibly to the detriment of other geographical regions.
However, the Ausa integration will also have had its own impact, although we have no detail on this. JLG has moved some of its Chinese production to Italy. In a bid to avoid the worst of the Trump tariffs. How this pans out remains to be seen.
We would expect the second and third quarter to pick up a little as deferred purchases go through, and lead times become shorter. Much will depend on product availability in markets where demand is strongest.
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