Manitex International, Inc., provider of engineered lifting solutions including boom truck and rough-terrain cranes, rough-terrain forklifts and special mission-oriented vehicles, announced that net sales for its third quarter ended September 30, 2009 were USD15.1 million. This represents a 27.1% increase from the second quarter of 2009. The company also generated USD2.4 million in positive operating cash flow in the nine-month period ending September 30, 2009, a USD5.0 million positive swing from the negative USD2.6 million in the same period last year.

Revenues of USD15.1 million in the third quarter of 2009 were driven by increasing market share in the Manitex business and a small contribution from Badger Equipment, which it acquired in July. This represents a 27.1% increase from the second quarter of this year, but it is still down 47.2% compared to the same year-ago period. For the nine months ended September 30, 2009 net revenues were USD41.0 million, a 48% decrease from the same period in 2008.

Chairman and chief executive officer David Langevin says that while overall sales were up approximately 27% for the quarter, "due to the specific third quarter sales mix that was skewed towards lower capacity cranes and did not include higher margin military and specialized equipment sales, our cost of goods sold was higher and the gross margins were lower for the third quarter than our expectations for the fourth and the full year".

During the past three months, a significant portion of the company's backlog was for specialty and military orders which will ship during the fourth quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010. With this visibility, its increase in market share and positive indicators for its core products and for the economy, company officials expect an increase in sales and profits for 2010.

According to Andrew Rooke, Manitex International president and chief operating officer, "We continued to build our market share in the boom truck industry, gaining nine percentage points this year. In the third quarter, the majority of these gains were in the lower margin, lower capacity cranes that are currently in demand in this phase of the economic cycle. Our Manitex Liftking operation is producing substantial international and military orders which, at the end of the quarter, were largely in inventory, and due for shipment in the fourth quarter of the year. Our recently added Badger acquisition has completed the first production model of its new rough-terrain crane, which also was in inventory and is awaiting fourth quarter shipment."