05.05.2009

Palfinger drops 33%

Palfinger the loader crane and access company has reported first quarter sales down almost 33 percent to €140.4 million, while posting a pre-tax loss of €4.7 million.

If the acquisitions of Wumag and Omaha Standard are stripped out the drop in revenues is closer to 50 percent. The company says that it is pleased with the contribution that Wumag has made and that the truck mounted aerial lift market has performed better than its crane division.

Crane sales, which generate most of the group’s profits, dropped 45 percent to €79 million, - 53 percent without Omaha standard’s contribution. Palfinger says that the market is now showing signs of stabilising after a quarter in which several major markets, such as Spain, Russia, UK, Ireland and Greece purchased almost nothing. It also says that dealer inventories have now been largely reduced or eliminated while activity in North America is showing signs of picking up.

The crane division still managed to post a small positive result of €184,000 compared to €32.5 million last year.

The Hydraulic services division, which includes the new Palfinger Platforms business and tail lifts saw revenues drop just 5.9 percent to €65.2 million, thanks to the Wumag acquisition. However it also posted a loss of over €2million compared to a €1.24 million loss last year.

The company is not expecting any significant pick up in the second quarter and is still seeing some erosion in its order books, however in the second half of the year it expects to see some improvement while it will begin to benefit from low raw material costs.

Vertikal Comment

Palfinger, while a public company is closely held, with the Palfinger family holding effective control. As such it is able to focus on the long term continuing to rationalise its tail lift business and platform production while refining its product offerings and continuing to build its brand, particularly in the access and tail lift markets.

The company has invested heavily in recent years on streamlining its production facilities and moving some labour intensive production to lower cost countries.
The current slow down will allow it to accelerate this process across the whole company while adding distribution in some weaker market areas.

Palfinger looks likely to weather the downturn in good shape and emerge ahead of some of its principle competitors in all three of its key product areas.