Oshkosh Corp says North American demand for replacement of aerial work platforms and telehandlers was a bright spot in its second fiscal quarter ended 31 March.
"Our access equipment business returned to profitability this quarter and continued its recovery with non-M-ATV-related sales increasing 73%, orders nearly doubling and backlog nearly tripling, compared to the prior year's second quarter," says Charles L Szews, president and chief executive officer. "Multiple new product launches during the quarter were greeted with enthusiasm by our customers and led to robust order intakes for new products."
M-ATV refers to the mine-resistant, ambush-protected all-terrain vehicle for which the access equipment segment provided significant manufacturing services for Oshkosh's defence segment.
The access equipment segment - primarily under the JLG brand - reports quarterly operating profit of USD17.7 million on sales of USD471.2 million versus profit of USD45.8 million on sales of USD1.01 billion, the latter including USD737.2 million of the segment's M-ATV-related sales to the defence segment. Oshkosh completed an initial 8,079 M-ATVs during the January-March quarter.
The access equipment segment's backlog is USD596.3 million as at 31 March, compared to USD203.3 million a year earlier.
Companywide, during the second quarter Oshkosh had profit of USD67.7 million on sales of USD1.75 billion. The previous comparable period's profit was USD292.6 million on sales of USD2.86 billion. In addition to the access equipment and defence segments, other units for the Oshkosh-based corporation deal with the fire-emergency and commercial markets.