07.05.2009

Boom turns in a loss

Australian crane and access company, Boom Logistics has reported a third quarter results which show a A$2.1 million loss. The company does not provide detailed interim results but issued a trading update which revealed the negative result.

The company says that it spent $900,000 on restructuring its Victorian/Melbourne mobile crane business, and took a $1.3 million write-off in asset values for stock losses and lower used crane values. It also said that it is not expecting any upturn in the fourth quarter.

Overall the company’s crane hire division turned in a better result for the third quarter of the 2009 than for the same period last year although it does not expect this to continue in the fourth quarter.
The company is reducing head count by 130 and will sell off 40 of its smaller capacity cranes.

Boom’s crane sales business James Equipment offset any gain in the rental business, due the company says to exchange rate with the Yen and Euro and financing difficulties amongst its clients. It saw its new machine inventory jump over $11 million to nearly $38 million. The group’s aerial lift business Boom Sherrin also experienced difficulties.