Terex Lifting saw its sales fall 14% in the first quarter of 2001 to $192.2m. Excluding the divested truck-mounted forklift operations, the fall in sales was just 3%. Operating profit of $15.2m represents an 18% decline on continuing operations.

The company reported: “Hydraulic mobile crane revenues in North America increased during the first quarter, outpacing the industry, which was essentially down during the first quarter of 2001. Terex telescopic boom truck-mounted cranes had a good quarter with revenues up strongly. Outside of those two product lines, lattice boom cranes continued to deliver strong performance in North America, offset by the weaker performance of the material handlers business and the decline in aerial work platform sales compared to last year.

“This has been a difficult quarter in terms of meeting our objectives,” said Fil Filipov, president of Terex Lifting during the period. “The business environment remains challenging primarily as a result of our customers’ lack of access to new capital for equipment purchases. We operate in a very dynamic marketplace where we need to continuously expand our customer base in order to grow our markets, and the current slowdown in several of our markets gives us the opportunity to do just that.”