Oshkosh Corp saw a major quarterly increase in JLG-related access equipment sales, held a grand opening ceremony in Tianjin, China and sees near-term positives for the segment.

For the fourth quarter ended 30 September, "access equipment segment sales to external customers increased 57.8% to USD385.8 million, versus the prior year's comparable period", the company reports.

In the latest quarter, "sales of new access equipment in both North America and Latin America each experienced triple-digit percentage sales growth. . . . While North American sales remain significantly lower than historical levels due to weak construction markets and tight credit, sales have begun to recover from historic lows," Oshkosh says.

"I just returned from our new China manufacturing facility grand opening," says Charles Szews, Oshkosh president and chief operating officer. "It's a great facility, and I'm excited about the opportunities this facility will provide us to service our customers in Asia and Australia. We expect this region to be a growth engine for the access equipment segment in the coming years."

Construction on the Tianjin plant was completed earlier in 2010 and incorporates the latest systems in manufacturing, sub-assembly, fabrication and paint technologies. JLG has gradually introduced additional product models into the plant for local fabrication and assembly.

Oshkosh is upbeat about prospects for the JLG-led access equipment segment.

"Because of relatively strong fiscal third and fourth quarter sales and continued positive comments from rental companies, we currently believe that our access equipment segment will record solid year-over-year sales gains . . . (and) generate operating income margins in the low single digits in fiscal 2011" ending 30 September 2011, Oshkosh says in a regulatory filing. "We expect most of the sales gains will come from North America, due largely to replacement demand, and from emerging markets."

In the short term, Oshkosh has used underutilised JLG manufacturing capacity to support the company's defence segment requirements for production of mine-resistant, ambush-protected all-terrain vehicles (M-ATV). Apart from sales to external customers, "fourth quarter fiscal 2010 access equipment segment sales included USD151.1 million of M-ATV-related intersegment sales to the defence segment, an increase of USD64.4 million as compared to the prior year fourth quarter", Oshkosh reports.

In a separate development, Oshkosh is integrating production of its line of Jerr-Dan towing industry vehicles into JLG facilities.

For comparable 12-month periods ended 30 September, the Oshkosh-based company reports profit of USD790 million on sales of USD9.84 billion. That compares to a loss of USD1.10 billion on fiscal 2009 sales of USD5.25 billion.

On 1 November, Oshkosh named retired US Air Force Lieutenant General Leslie F Kenne to the company's board of directors. As deputy chief of staff for war fighting integration, Kenne was the military branch's most senior female officer at the time of her retirement in 2003. Now, she is president of independent consulting firm LK Associates in Fairfax, Virginia.