The company attributed approximately half of the year-on-year decline to lower crawler crane shipments and lower sales in the Americas. Manitowoc said the decline was offset by a sales revenue increase in Europe, driven by stronger residential and commercial construction trends and new product innovations.
First quarter orders stood at $488m, recording a 17% rise compared to the same period in the previous year.
Barry L. Pennypacker, president and chief executive officer of The Manitowoc Company said: “In the first-quarter, we were pleased by the strong customer reception of our new products, many of which were highlighted at ConExpo. Nearly half of our equipment orders in the quarter were for products introduced since becoming a stand-alone crane company last year, which drove year-over-year and sequential orders up by 17% and 40%, respectively. Although the market has not shown signs of a sustained recovery, we are encouraged by the increased orders we booked in the quarter, and at this time reiterating our full-year financial guidance.
“Our first-quarter revenue was negatively impacted by the low level of backlog entering 2017, mainly due to historically low levels of crawler crane demand. In addition, our Mobile crane business remains soft in the Americas and the Middle East as a result of continued low rental rates, weakness in used equipment prices and low oil prices, notwithstanding the increased activity in some of the American shale basins. Our tower crane business performed in line with our expectations, reflecting market share gains in key product lines.”
