Construction Company Earnings Summary 2Q 2021

Key Takeaways

• Most companies cite very strong demand trends and a positive outlook for the remainder of 2021. The US infrastructure bill should continue to provide tailwinds for several years
• Higher input costs (steel, copper, etc) are adding to manufacturing costs.
• Supply chains are constrained, but large manufacturers such as Caterpillar state that it is manageable.
• Several manufacturers noted equipment rental company fleet demand is recovering.

Global construction demand remains robust, driven by the post-pandemic recovery. Most manufacturers believe the cycle has tailwinds for the next several years, driven by fiscal stimulus and infrastructure spending.

Higher input costs were cited as a concern, and most manufacturers have noted supply challenges. Caterpillar stated that supply challenges exist, but they are not jeopardizing inventories.

Caterpillar dealer inventories are at the lower end of historical trends.

Company Outlooks

Titan Machinery

"Equipment demand momentum continued through our second fiscal quarter with our equipment revenues increasing 35% versus prior year. The current environment is supported by our healthy inventory position and robust demand, along with continued strength in our parts and service business," said David Meyer, Titan Machinery’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

"We are especially pleased with the improved performance of both our Construction and International segments."

"The current environment is providing us the opportunity to showcase the improvements we've made to our business over the past several years. Our inventory turns are continuing to trend upward and we are receiving inventory shipments that are allowing us to surpass our revenue targets. While supply chains remain tight, we are confident in our ability to drive growth through the second half of our fiscal year and, as a result, we are raising our modeling assumptions accordingly."

"We are seeing increased construction activity in most of our markets being driven by the reopening of the economy, low interest rates, new housing starts, farmer and rancher purchases, improved oil prices and pending final infrastructure legislation. With that said, we are most excited about our operating improvements -- seeing operating improvements translate in to significantly enhanced pretax profitability," said Bryan Knutson, Chief Operating Officer of Titan Machinery.

John Deere

"Our strong results, driven by essentially all product categories, are a testament to the exceptional efforts of our employees and dealers to keep our factories running and customers served while enduring significant supply-chain pressures," said John C. May, chairman and CEO.

"Looking ahead, we expect demand for farm and construction equipment to continue benefiting from favorable fundamentals," May said.

"North American construction equipment industry sales are forecast to be up between 15% and 20%. Sales of compact construction equipment expected to be up 20% to 25%. In addition, forestry equipment driven by strong lumber demand is expected to be up 15%."

"To date, end markets for earthmoving and compact equipment have benefited from a strong housing market. And while this growth rate has slowed a bit, we are beginning to see positive indicators for non-residential investment and order activity from independent rental companies remain exceptionally strong heading into the fourth quarter."

"North American construction equipment industry sales are forecast to be up between 15% and 20%. Sales of compact construction equipment expected to be up 20% to 25%. In addition, forestry equipment driven by strong lumber demand is expected to be up 15%," said John Stone - President of Construction & Forestry.

"To date, end markets for earthmoving and compact equipment have benefited from a strong housing market. And while this growth rate has slowed a bit, we are beginning to see positive indicators for non-residential investment and order activity from independent rental companies remain exceptionally strong heading into the fourth quarter."

"Demand for earthmoving and compact construction equipment will exceed our production for the year, resulting in low inventory levels as we exit the Fiscal year. Moving to the CNS segment outlook on slide 13, we expect our sales to be up around 30%."

Linamar (Skyjack)

"Market demand is strong, helping to drive an excellent recovery for us at Linamar.” said Linamar CEO Linda Hasenfratz, “Market pressures from supply chain shortages are creating challenges but we are managing them and at the same time growing market share and generating cash. We are confident in a sustained period of excellent market demand once the supply chain issues are resolved."

"Skyjack saw a very strong quarter on the back of a deeply rebounding market... Commercial and industrial sales were up 48% in the quarter, mainly due to strong Skyjack performance."

"Further growth for the full year in core North America and European markets are expected, which is a great time. Equipment utilization levels continue to look positive. In Q2, utilization levels were between 93% and 98% of 2019 levels and well ahead of 2020, which is a really good sign. Double-digit growth is expected in core North American and European markets in 2021 and 2022 as you can see."

"The strong backlog already noted at Skyjack certainly supports it and should drive double-digit sales growth for Skyjack this year and next year."

Manitowoc

"Demand for our products continued to exceed our expectations as we capitalized on a steadily improving market," said Aaron H. Ravenscroft, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Manitowoc Company, Inc.

"As we previously mentioned, the second half of 2021 will present challenges on various fronts that our teams are proactively managing. Rising inflation, supply chain shortages, and skilled labor constraints are headwinds that will be more impactful throughout the remainder of the year."

"Market strength that we experienced in the last few quarters has continued. We saw strength in all markets, all major regions, although I remain intrigued by the dynamics of the European market. Our tower crane business in the region is as strong as it's been in the last five or six years. However, the recovery of the European mobile crane market is still lagging. In Asia, we continue to see strong demand, although I must say that China has slowed during the summer months."

Finally, in the Americas, the business continues to post improving results and any infrastructure bill that the government may pass will provide good tailwind for the coming years.

Manitex

"We reported higher revenues, improving gross margins, and improved EBITDA both in terms of dollars and percentage. And, at over $2 million for the quarter, our adjusted net income from continuing operations is on pace to reach higher annualized levels than we've seen in recent years. We continue to gain share on knuckle booms and aerials in certain European markets such as Italy, France, Spain, and the UK, and our straight mast boom truck business is tracking to an industry-wide recovery from 2020, where we remain a market leader," said Steve Filipov, CEO of Manitex.

"We are seeing more confidence from our distributors and partners in their order patterns. There are tenders that we continue to work on around the globe, and legislative progress towards an infrastructure spending program in the United States suggests increased construction activity. Our products are all very well-suited to handle much of the work that will be done through new funding initiatives, and we're excited about the opportunities ahead."

"Our backlog, at over $111 million, reflects a healthy recovery in demand in many of the markets that we serve. While the supply chain continues to pose challenges to the industry for product availability and pricing, we expect a strong finish to the year," concluded Mr. Filipov.

Caterpillar

"We’re encouraged by higher sales and revenues across all regions and in our three primary segments, which reflect continued improvement in our end markets," said Caterpillar Chairman and CEO Jim Umpleby.

"We had gains in all 3 of our primary segments. Machines rose 20% with similar increases in both construction industries and resource industries, with improvement in all regions. Demand from residential construction remained strong, and demand related to non-residential improved."

"Mining was also up. Quotation activity for miners remains strong, and we've seen a significant improvement in orders through the first 2 quarters. We were also pleased that Heavy Construction and Quarry and Aggregates strengthened, as did several end markets within Energy and Transportation."

"Energy and Transportation sales to users turned positive, rising 1%. Keep in mind that the slowdown in end-user demand in 2020 affected the Energy and Transportation later than the other segments, as some of the applications are impacted by timing of large products."

"From a geographic perspective, we had strength in sales across all regions. North America was quite strong, as expected. The EMEA and Latin America also showed double-digit sales growth."

"Dealer inventory declined $400 million during the second quarter. Similar to the first quarter of this year, dealer inventory remains near the low end of the normal range."

"In spite of the unprecedented challenges impacting the industrial sector, I'm proud of the work by our team to minimize disruptions, which were relatively modest during the second quarter. For the majority of our products, availability remains within our normal ranges. We mentioned on the last earnings call that the supply chain situation, including transportation, was challenging, and that our team was preparing contingency plans such as alternative assembly processes at our facilities."

CNH Industrial (Case)

"Despite ongoing supply chain challenges and inflationary pressures, the continued strength of our end markets in conjunction with aggressive pricing activity, margin expansion initiatives, and solid teamwork propelled us to record second quarter earnings. Our industry is clearly in a cyclical upturn and the sound fundamental performance of our businesses and operations is enabling us to capture much of the benefit. This robust environment contributed to growth across AG, CE, and C&SV order books, which also reflected the excellent Q2 performance of each of these businesses," noted Scott Wine, CEO CNH Industrial.

"For Construction Equipment, we see persistent growth in both the light and heavy segments. (Light segment) is largely driven by continued strength in residential construction while the (heavy segment) is due to increased contractor demand as well as preparations for the probable U.S. infrastructure bill. Construction Equipment demand in South America is particularly high driven by overall segment demand in Brazil. Versus the same quarter in 2019, the construction industry grew double-digits on a worldwide basis and was up across all regions aside from heavy in North America and Europe."

Hitachi

"Solid order intakes mainly in markets recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic."

Komatsu

"Construction, Mining & Utility Equipment demand should remain steady in residential and non-residential construction as well as road and traffic infrastructure. Demand for rental equipment is starting to recover."

"European construction demand is recovering, centering on major markets, such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and France."

"Global mining demand is very strong, up 46% year-over-year driven by Oceania, Latin America CIS and Asia."

Terex

Our AWP and MP segments continue to perform well, allowing us to capture the benefits from the positive market fundamentals that we are seeing. First, in Genie. The current market dynamics point to a multi-year replacement cycle for access equipment. The average age of fleets globally is increasing, and customers need to replenish their fleets, so the replacement cycle is kicking in. We're beginning to see positive indicators for non-residential investment, as well as continued strong order activity.

(Utility business) demand is strong across its end markets of tree care, rental and investor owned utilities. In addition, we are experiencing strong growth in our utilities parts and service business.

Next for materials processing, we expect global demand for crushing and screening equipment to continue to grow. Broad based economic growth, construction activity, and aggregate consumption are the primary market drivers. We are seeing strong markets for the cement mixture, material handling, and environmental businesses.

In addition, global monetary and fiscal stimulus programs have supported stronger demand in our end markets. Overall, we are seeing robust market conditions around the world for our industry leading products and solutions.

Oshkosh (JLG)

"It’s no secret that global supply chain disruption and access to labor are presenting a challenge to industries around the globe, and our people have executed effectively to deliver strong results," said John C. Pfeifer, Oshkosh Corporation President and CEO.

"As we look at the current landscape, many industries including our own are seeing a rapid increase in demand with market recoveries causing significant stress on global supply chains . And that has only intensified over the past quarter. At Oshkosh, we are witnessing the effect of these supply chain disruptions primarily within the Access Equipment business, impacting sales by approximately $100 million during the quarter. Importantly, we believe these supply chain issues will eventually subside, and we are well positioned to capitalize on the market recovery"

"Access Equipment: The recovery momentum we discussed on our last call continued in demand for our industry-leading Access Equipment strengthened. While we expected some supply chain disruptions in the back half of the year. The magnitude of the impacts has been more significant than we previously expected."

"Our access team did an outstanding job minimizing the volume impact during the quarter, which allowed us to deliver nearly 90% revenue growth versus the prior year. We are seeing strong demand led by North America. Elevated fleet ages combined with strong equipment utilization and a healthy rental market are fueling this demand."

"We expect a multi-year opportunity for robust replacement demand as rental companies' look to lower the overall age of their fleets, which were at historically high levels entering 2021. We expect further opportunities when non-residential construction rebounds. As a result of these market fundamentals, our customers are already beginning to plan for their 2022 capital requirements."

"Orders were strong during the quarter leading to a backlog of $1.75 billion, up more than 200% versus last year and an all-time record for access for the third quarter. We continue to be pleased with customer interest in orders for our electric booms and scissor lifts. The move towards electric is still in its early stages and is gaining traction with customers that are looking for improved performance benefits, total cost of ownership benefits, and carbon footprint reduction."

The bottom line for the segment is that we're still in the beginning of what we believe is a multi-year growth cycle as economies recover and customers use our safety and productivity enhancing equipment in more applications.

Volvo Construction Equipment

"During Q2 2021, demand for the Volvo Group’s products and services continued to be good. In a quarter when shortages of semiconductors as well as other production materials resulted in substantial production stoppages affecting both volumes and costs negatively, we achieved an adjusted operating margin of 10.7%," says Martin Lundstedt, President and CEO.

"In areas outside China, we have to mitigate (material const inflation, introducing), a price increases to compensate for the raw material.

Atlas Copco

Atlas Copco expects that the customers’ business activity level will remain at the high current level. Order intake increased 45% to a record level, representing organic growth of 54%.

Find Similar Articles By Topic

#Earnings Summary #construction #Caterpillar #Case Construction #Genie #Terex #JLG #Volvo Construction #John Deere #Manitowoc #Hitachi #komatsu