A continuing economic recovery in North America and strong growth especially in Western Europe boosted the Terex Corp aerial work platforms (AWP) segment during the first quarter ended 31 March.

"Our AWP business has seen a substantial increase in demand from the North American rental channel, with backlog up approximately 123% from this time last year and approximately 45% from the end of 2010," says Ronald DeFeo, Terex chairman and chief executive officer. "We have initiated pricing increases in AWP, starting with deliveries scheduled for late in the second quarter of 2011. However, the current operating margin reflects the impact of orders placed early in the recovery without the benefits of the new pricing structure or the benefit of operating efficiencies as we accelerated production to meet the increased demand."

For the quarter, the AWP segment had profit of USD6 million on sales of USD376.8 million in comparison with a loss of USD20.3 million on sales of USD215.7 million in the comparable period last year.

In unaudited amounts, AWP had a 31 March 2011 backlog of USD445.4 million, up from USD200.0 the previous year.

"Driving this (AWP backlog) increase are improved fleet utilisations, replacement of aging fleets and customer concerns about product availability later in the recovery cycle," Terex reports. "Order activity is strong across most models in the boom, scissor and telehandler categories."

For all continuing operations during the quarter, Westport-based Terex reports profit of USD5.0 million on sales of USD1.26 billion. That compares to a loss of USD79.0 million on total sales of USD935.9 million for the corresponding 2010 quarter. In addition to AWP, Terex has construction cranes and materials processing segments.