Manitex reports lower revenue, larger backlog

Crane manufacturer Manitex International posted net revenues for the third quarter at US$36.5 million, compared to $50.6 million in the prior year’s period. Net loss from continuing operations was $1.4 million, compared to net loss of $4.5 million in the third quarter of 2019. 

Net revenues for the quarter declined 1.7 percent from the second quarter of 2020. Adjusted EBITDA had a positive swing of $1.3 million to $0.9 million for the quarter, as compared to the prior quarter of 2020. Realized quarterly cost savings of $1.1 million were due to restructuring and other cost savings measures implemented this year the company said.

Further good news is the a backlog was $56.6 million as of October 31, 2020, showed an improvement of 28 percent since June 30, 2020. The company secured a purchase order from an international military entity for approximately $2.5 million with an optional $2.3 million in additional deliveries. The company was awarded a contract by Collè Rental & Sales, of Sittard, Netherlands, for Valla electric cranes, valued at approximately $2.5 million.

Steve Filipov, CEO of Manitex International, said, ”Our third quarter results were in line with our expectations, with a significant improvement in profitability from the second quarter of 2020. We reported a $1.3 million improvement in adjusted EBITDA of $900,000, or 2.6 percent of sales versus a loss of approximately $300,000 in the second quarter. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to create uncertainty in our markets, but we continue do the utmost to protect the safety and health of our teams and their families by strengthening our safety protocols to adapt to this changing environment.”

He continued, “While we were impacted by the seasonal 2-week summer shut down in our European operations and sporadic furloughs at our Georgetown facility, we continued to take steps to protect our employees, shareholders, and adapt to a challenging environment. Our backlog has started to grow again and is up nearly 30 percent since the end of June. The strategic initiatives we have implemented at the PM Group both on the revenue side are driving improved performance for in both our knuckle boom products and our truck-mounted aerials year-over-year. We have also seen a positive trend in demand for our zero-emission Valla crane products and signed a significant order with a rental customer in Europe. We are continuing to invest in new products and technologies in this business as we see the demand coming from our customers to move to more environmentally friendly products.”

He said the company executed a restructuring plan at the Georgetown and Winona facilities in July.

“While the market for boom trucks in trending down approximately 25 percent, we were able to secure an extended military order for knuckle booms, and we have seen some promising order pick up in the past few weeks on boom trucks,” he said. ”The reality of Covid-19 and other macro economic uncertainties, makes it difficult to give more substantial guidance, but we remain optimistic about fourth quarter performance. Given the uptick in orders and backlog, we expect our revenues to trend higher to a range of $40 million - $43 million, with the bottom line improving from our continued focus on margin recovery.”