Q1 sales up at Terex

Terex Cranes has reported its first quarter 2005 results and posted a $90.3 million (∈73 million) rise in sales to $299.5 million (∈243 million) compared to $209.2 million (∈170 million) during the same period in 2004. The company said the rise reflected “general improvement in all businesses, but particular strength in the tower crane group”.

Income from operations dropped $0.1 million (∈81,000) to $6.3 million (∈51 million) compared to Q1 2004 as a result of a weak North American market, the expiration of favorable long term steel pricing contracts and the impact of a five week strike at the Waverley plant IA state.

“The cranes segment continued to show strong revenue growth from its recent cyclical lows,”said Terex Cranes president Steve Filipov. “Our first quarter deliveries were over 40% higher than the same quarter the prior year. This is even more impressive when you factor in the five-week strike at our Waverly facility, negatively impacting our ability to ship our planned order book. With the strike behind us now, having signed a three-year labor agreement with our union, we are focused on ramping our production back up and adding workers and a second shift to our Waverly, Iowa facility. The end result of these actions will be higher productivity in the factory and substantially more shipments of cranes with higher pricing versus 2004 levels.”

Filipov added, “We continue to see strong results from our tower crane business and our French operation, where we have a strong backlog. These companies should also continue to see margin expansion moving into the second quarter, as price increases taken in late 2004 are beginning to flow through production. Our crawler crane business, although showing modest signs of improvement, remains under pressure. As Terex moves further into 2005, that business should begin to show some positive trends as Asian demand is projected to remain strong and the potential exists for a few large crawler crane project orders.”