12.11.2009

Positive trend at Manitex

US based boom truck manufacture Manitex has reported third quarter revenues of $15 million, a fall of 47 percent, while the company generated a pre tax loss of $359,000 compared to a profit last year of $335.

In spite of this the company is upbeat with revenues for the quarter up 27 percent on the second quarter, while the order book at the end of the period is up 47 percent on December 2008.

Year to date revenues were $40.95 million almost 48 percent down on the first nine months of 2008.the pre-tax loss was $556,000 compare to a $1.17 million profit for the first three quarter of 2008.

The company has now completed the acquisition of Badger equipment and has also launched its largest crane to date, a long boomed 55 ton unit – the 50155. Manitex says that its market share has climbed to 38 percent during the period..

Chief executive David Langevin said: "While overall sales were up approximately 27 percent for the quarter, due to the specific third quarter sales mix that was skewed towards lower capacity cranes and did not include higher margin military and specialized equipment sales, our cost of goods sold were higher and the gross margins were lower for the third quarter than our expectations for the fourth and the full year.”

“As announced during the past three months, a significant portion of our backlog is for specialty and military orders which will ship during the fourth quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010. With this visibility, our significant increase in market share along with the hopeful signs we are seeing in our core products and the economy, we are looking forward to a continued increase in sales and profits for 2010."