Terex saw ‘double digit growth’ in its US boom truck business last year on the back of uncertainty among its two main competitors.
Last year saw market leader National Crane acquired by Manitowoc, while the number three player, Manitowoc Boom Trucks, was put up for sale to comply with a Department of Justice ruling to prevent Manitowoc taking an anti-competitive share of the market. Terex says that it benefited from what was a period of uncertainty.
The boom truck business is a small part of the Terex empire, however, and its success was insufficient to prevent the company making a net loss of $132.5m in 2002, compared to a net profit of $12.8m in 2001.
Excluding the impact of special items, net income for the full year 2002 was $46.8m, compared to $40.1m for the full year 2001.
The company had a net loss in the fourth quarter of 2002 of $40.3m, compared to net profit of $1.6m for the fourth quarter of 2001. Excluding the impact of special items (which included restructuring costs an the impact of changes in accountancy standards), net income for the fourth quarter of 2002 was $5.4m, compared to $4.5m for the fourth quarter of 2001. The fourth quarter of 2002 included net charges of $45.7m for restructuring, including at the the recent acquisitions of Demag and Genie.
The Demag acquisition help the Terex Cranes division increase its net sales in 2002 to $700.8m, up from $473.9m in 2001.
The base business saw a 7% rise in net sales, led by boom trucks, Bendini in Italy and a contract to supply the US Marine Corps with telehandlers. This increase was partially offset by continued weakness in the US hydraulic crane market, ‘which reported double-digit revenue declines in 2002’, Terex said.
‘The full year 2002 performance for the Terex Cranes group benefited from the geographic and product diversification of our group,’ said Terex Cranes president Fil Filipov.
He said: ‘We are well on our way to integrating Demag and remain comfortable with the $20m in annualised cost savings announced at the date of the acquisition. The restructuring we launched in the fourth quarter for our European crane business is a further step to streamline manufacturing operations and leverage the Demag acquisition across the whole Terex Cranes group.’
