Financial reports from major equipment manufacturers Oshkosh Corp and Terex Corp showed positive signs for the economy.

Oshkosh reports sales for its JLG-branded access equipment segment increased 40.4% to USD814.6 million for the third quarter ended 30 June as compared to the prior-year quarter at USD580.1 million. Aerial work platforms had sales of USD426.1 million; telehandlers, USD260.8 million; and other business volume, USD127.7 million.

Oshkosh attributes the sales increase principally to higher unit volumes and the realisation of previously announced price increases.

Oshkosh says access equipment sales in all major geographic regions grew by double-digit percentages compared to last year. The largest increase was in North America and was driven largely by replacement of aged equipment.
Operating income for the segment nearly tripled to USD88.2 million compared to last year's corresponding operating income of USD29.5 million. This increase reflected higher volume, price increases and manufacturing efficiencies, partially offset by higher material costs.

For all of its operations in the comparable third quarters, the Oshkosh, Wisconsin-based corporation reported profit of USD75.7 million on sales of USD2.18 billion versus profit of USD68.4 million on sales of USD2.02 billion.

"Strong execution of our MOVE (Market recovery and growth, Optimise cost and capital structure, Value innovation, and Emerging market expansion) strategy initiatives supported improved results from the second to the third fiscal quarters," says Charles L Szews, Oshkosh president and chief executive officer. "Each of our non-defence segments also posted improved performance and higher operating income margins compared with the third quarter of last year."

Sales for Terex's Genie-branded aerial work platform segment increased to USD605.7 million for the second quarter ended 30 June, 24.7% higher than the USD485.7 million in the same quarter last year.

Terex continued to see increased replacement-based demand in the North American rental channel for its aerial work platform products, and the Australian market remained a relatively strong contributor, due to natural resource-based construction spending.

Company-wide, profit from continuing operations in the quarter was USD83.6 million on sales of USD2.01 billion as compared to profit of USD0.9 million on sales of USD1.49 billion during the comparable 2011 second quarter.

"This year's focus has been to improve margins, generate cash and integrate Demag Cranes AG," says Ronald DeFeo, Terex chairman and chief executive officer. "We are on or ahead of expectations in these categories."

DeFeo continues, "The overall operating margin increased significantly to 8.7%, and to 9.9% excluding the Demag Cranes AG acquisition. Our aerial work platforms and cranes segments had strong performances and are well positioned for continued improvement in the second half of the year."

DeFeo says he believes "the strength in our AWP and Cranes segments, as well as in North America and select other markets like Australia, will offset the weakness we expect to experience in certain markets during the second half of the year".

Terex is based in Westport, Connecticut.