Manitowoc Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
February 15, 2024

There are 8 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning. My name is Christa, and I'll be your conference At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Manitowoc Earnings Conference Call. I will now turn the call to Ion Warner, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Investor Relations, you may begin your conference. Please proceed.

Speaker 1

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Manitowoc conference call to review the company's Q4 and full year 2023 financial performance and business update as outlined in last evening's press release. Participating on the call today are Aaron Ravenscroft, President and Chief Executive Officer and Brian Regan, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Today's webcast includes a slide presentation, which can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website under Events and Presentations. We will reserve time for questions and answers after our prepared remarks. I would like to request that you limit your questions to 1 and a follow-up and return to the queue to ensure everyone has an opportunity to ask their questions.

Speaker 1

Please turn to slide 2. Please note our Safe Harbor statement in the material provided for this call. During today's call, forward looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 are made based on the company's current assessment of its markets and other factors that affect business. However, actual results could differ materially from any implied or actual projections due to 1 or more of the factors, among others, in the company's latest SEC filings. The Manitowoc Company does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or other circumstances.

Speaker 1

And with that, I will now turn the call over to Aaron.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Ion, and good morning, everyone. Please turn to Slide 3. As I look back over the last 12 months, I'm very pleased with the performance delivered by the Manitowoc team. While the specific challenges seem to ebb and flow, without a doubt, 2023 was just as tough as the previous few years. Although inflation seems to be mostly behind us at this point, the team worked diligently throughout the year to mitigate cost increases from our suppliers while continuing to push for the appropriate price increases.

Speaker 2

From a demand perspective, the European tower crane market was even softer than we anticipated. Unfortunately, the mobile crane market, particularly in the U. S. Proved to be far more resilient considering the interest rate increases that we've seen. Consequently, our team had their work cut out for them.

Speaker 2

Their hard work and achieving these results often goes unnoticed on these calls, but without their willingness to go above and beyond, Our performance would not be possible. Thank you to the team. For the full year, we generated slightly above $2,200,000,000 in sales $175,000,000 in adjusted EBITDA, a 23% increase year over year. And our adjusted EBITDA margins expanded 90 basis points to 7.9%, which is a great result when you take into account the unfavorable mix that we faced. Non new machine sales for 2023 were $613,000,000 a 12% increase.

Speaker 2

Please turn to Slide 4. Turning our attention to the Manitowoc Way, I'm extremely proud of the team's results. 1st and foremost, in terms of safety, we ended the year with an RIR or recordable incident rate of 1.01. Our goal remains 0 injuries, but nevertheless it is worth noting that this is our best result in the company's history. I attribute these results to an increased focus on interactive observations.

Speaker 2

This is essentially a structured on the job safety dialogue between supervisors and our shop floor team aimed at discussing safe and unsafe behaviors. Our interactive observations increased 70% year over year to 17,000 in 2023. In addition, we continue to pursue environmentally related cases. As a result, our waste to landfill improved 30% and our Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse Gas emissions intensity improved by almost 9% compared to 2022. The paint value stream at our Charu factory in France won our CEO Manitowoc Award This year for the best environmental lessons learned.

Speaker 2

Among several improvements, the team developed a digital monitoring tool to optimize scheduling eliminate bottlenecks in the shop glass line and paintwork stations. The team was able to increase the capacity of the paint line by 44% while reducing the carbon footprint by 4 35 tonnes of CO2 per year. That's equal to an annual usage of 100 gasoline powered cars. This is the power of the Manitowoc Way. Lastly, I would like to recognize 3 other award winners this year.

Speaker 2

Doudo Purovat our Sharyu factory won the leadership award for his work on electromechanical value stream. I mentioned some of his achievements on a previous call. Over the last couple of years, Ludo has become a real lean guru and I've enjoyed watching him grow as a leader. Please turn to Slide 5. For the first time, we created an award to recognize the implementation of the Manitowoc Way at our growing service locations.

Speaker 2

Our Anthony, Iowa location won the inaugural award for a mobile station that they developed to complete dielectric testing on booms in the field. Previously, we had to lift the 250 pound device under the back of a flatbed truck, which wasn't very safe. It was pretty clumsy to use and it didn't look very professional. Now the service technicians can simply pull the device to a crane in the field. Well done to the team.

Speaker 2

Please turn to Slide 6. And finally, the crawler crane value stream in Shady Grove won the award for the best Kaizen. In fact, a couple of investors helped us in the early stages of this project. In the previous process, we welded large boom inserts as one unit, building scaffolding around the part as it got larger. With the application of a little ingenuity in some elbow grease, the team made the process progressive in nature and now we weld the unit as sections.

Speaker 2

Imagine making sub assemblies that are welded into the final part. This has significantly improved our safety and quality, putting our welders in a much better ergonomic position to weld the part and as a result improving productivity by eliminating 7 50 hours for the process. Great job by the team and congratulations. Please move to Slide 7. Turning our attention to the market.

Speaker 2

Generated orders of $476,000,000 during the quarter and our backlog ended the year at $917,000,000 While the order rate was down significantly from the anomaly of the Q4 of 2022, this was still a good showing concerning how slow the European tower crane market has been. On a regional basis, the Americas remains pretty steady. The inventory levels remain reasonable, utilization rates at crane operators have been strong and rental rates have held. I believe that our boom truck business is in a great position for 2024. I expect our all terrain and rough terrain demand to be relatively steady even though Dealer inventory is a tad heavier than we'd like.

Speaker 2

Given the impending fallout from the commercial real estate market, I expect tower crane demand to be anemic, although this market is pretty small in the Americas. In Europe, it's a tale of 2 halves. Demand for tower cranes is very, very slow. Looking at the latest housing permit data on a trailing 12 month basis, France is down 24% and Germany is down 28%. Rental rates in France for topsoaring cranes have been under a lot of pressure.

Speaker 2

In addition, dealer inventory for self erecting cranes in Germany remains very high. On the other hand, demand for mobile cranes in Europe continues to hold up. Rental rates definitely inched up with the inflation and the large rental houses are well utilized and actively refreshing the Turning to the Middle East, the overall market remains robust, but we expect Turkey to be a headwind. In the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes last February, Demand surged to support the reconstruction of the areas affected. Nationally, we don't expect this to repeat.

Speaker 2

The activity in Saudi Arabia, however, continues to move forward. Not surprisingly, given the complexity and enormous scale of these projects, we have seen a few delays But nothing to create concern. During my visit to the region in December, everyone had the same story. With the 2029 Asian Winter Games, World Expo coming in 2,030 and the World Cup in 2,030 4, all of the major projects that have been revealed must be executed except for the line project in Lyon. As for the line, this continues to have high visibility with the crown prints and is moving forward, We have reached a stage where they're grappling with how to perform so many extreme engineering feats.

Speaker 2

As a final word on Saile, I highly recommend that you research the 6 Phoenix Cadilla project. This is one of the most impressive construction sites that I've ever visited. Photon Cranes are being utilized to build the world's largest and fastest roller coaster. The park is expected to open in late 2024. Construction in the Aero will continue well into the next decade as they build a Formula 1 racetrack and a soccer stadium as well as the necessary combinations.

Speaker 2

And finally, I'd like to briefly comment on Asia Pacific. After my visit in January, I felt the situation in China's construction market is even more dire than described in the news. There are lots of cranes in the air still, but you don't see many cranes moving on the job sites, which translates to projects being suspended. The local construction market is in a depression and I don't think anyone knows when this will turn. While our China revenue is immaterial on a consolidated basis, The bigger concern that I have is the level of intensity at which Chinese manufacturers continue to expand globally.

Speaker 2

Outside of China, we are starting to build momentum in Hong Kong and Singapore. South Korea is similar to Europe. Large commercial construction has slowed impacting tower panes, The heavier infrastructure markets will continue to support global crane demand. And finally, Australia continues to hold up. As well as the Australian dollar stays above $0.60 to the euro, expect crane demand to be solid.

Speaker 2

With that, I'll pass it over to Brian to walk you through the financials before I close with an update on our strategy.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Aaron, and good morning, everyone. Please move to Slide 8. As a reminder, we entered the 4th quarter with difficult year over year comparables and expected unfavorable mix due to the softness in the European tower crane market. This held true and the 4th quarter results were in line with our expectations. Turning to orders.

Speaker 3

During the Q4, we had orders of $476,000,000 a decrease of 33% from a year ago. Foreign currency favorably impacted orders by $9,000,000 Our December 31 backlog was $917,000,000 a year over year decrease of 13% and was favorably impacted by $9,000,000 from changes in foreign currency exchange rates. Net sales in the 4th quarter were $596,000,000 and decreased 4% from a year ago. The year over year decrease was primarily driven by softness in our European tower crane business. This impact was partially offset by global pricing efforts and product mix in the Americas.

Speaker 3

Net sales were favorably impacted $9,000,000 from changes in foreign currency. SG and A expenses were $88,000,000 which included a $10,000,000 charge related to a legal matter with the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. Excluding the impact of this charge, SG and A expenses as a percentage of sales were 13%, relatively flat year over year.

Speaker 3

Foreign currency unfavorably impacted SG and A expenses by $2,000,000 year over year. Our adjusted EBITDA for the Q4 was $37,000,000 a decrease of 29% year over year. The adjusted EBITDA margin was 6.1%, a decrease of 220 basis points over the prior year, primarily due to the unfavorable product mix. Our provision for income taxes in the quarter was $6,000,000 As a reminder, we have tax valuation allowances established for certain countries And therefore losses in those countries are not available to offset income tax expense in profitable jurisdictions. Our GAAP diluted loss per share in the quarter was $0.23 On an adjusted basis, diluted income per share was $0.09 a decrease of $0.65 from the prior year.

Speaker 3

Looking at the full year, our 2023 orders totaled $2,082,000,000 Relatively flat year over year. On a currency neutral basis, orders decreased $32,000,000 Net sales for the full year were $2,228,000,000 a 10% increase over the prior year. The increase was primarily due to the progress made on our Cranes Plus 50 strategy, the impact of higher crane volume in the Americas and MEAP, partially offset by lower tower crane sales in URF. Adjusted EBITDA for the full year was $175,000,000 an increase of 23% year over year. As a percentage of sales, the adjusted EBITDA margin increased 90 basis points over the prior year to 7.9%.

Speaker 3

Our GAAP diluted income per share for the full year was $1.09 On an adjusted basis, Diluted income per share was $1.52 a 43% increase from the prior year. Please turn to Slide 9. On our Q3 earnings call, we targeted a $70,000,000 reduction to our inventory over the last 3 months of the year. On a currency neutral basis, we reduced our inventory by $68,000,000 slightly short of that target. On a year over year basis, net working capital as a percentage of sales increased 90 basis points to 21%.

Speaker 3

This was primarily driven by higher finished goods inventory. Some of this was a consequence of our higher production levels, but we still have more work to do on finished goods. Moving to cash flows, we generated $63,000,000 of cash from operating activities during the year. Our generation of operating cash flows was negatively impacted by the timing of shipments during the Q4. Capital expenditures $77,000,000 of which approximately $23,000,000 was for strategic growth in our rental fleet.

Speaker 3

We ended the year with a cash balance of $34,000,000 Total outstanding borrowings under the ABL decreased $20,000,000 during the year, leaving $60,000,000 outstanding. Our net leverage ratio was 1.9 times as of December 31, 2023, well under the targeted three times and total liquidity was $280,000,000 Please turn to Slide 10. As we look ahead to 2024, we entered the year with a strong backlog in the Americas, but expect ongoing softness in the European tower crane market. The impact of this unfavorable mix is reflected in our outlook. Our 2024 guidance is as follows: net sales of $2,275,000,000 to $2,375,000,000 adjusted EBITDA of $150,000,000 to $180,000,000 depreciation and amortization of $63,000,000 to $67,000,000 interest expense of $32,000,000 to $34,000,000 provision for income tax expense of $18,000,000 to $22,000,000 adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.95 to $1.55 capital expenditures of $60,000,000 of which $25,000,000 relates to rental fleet growth.

Speaker 3

Free cash flows of $30,000,000 to $60,000,000 With that, I will now turn the call back to Aaron.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Brian. Entering 2023, we expect the year to look a lot like 2022 and overall it was much better. As we enter 2024, we anticipate global demand for mobile Unfortunately, however, we'll face difficult comparisons in the first half with ongoing softness in the European Power Crane business. This dynamic is reflected in our 2024 Patience, please turn to Slide 11. The Rocky Road recovery since the COVID pandemic continues and we await demand from the U.

Speaker 2

S. Infrastructure bill. In the meantime, we remain committed to our Cranes Plus 50 journey to reduce our cyclicality and increase our margins by growing our aftermarket. We recently refreshed our strategy with a few tweaks and I thought it was appropriate to provide an update on our 4 breakthrough initiatives. Starting with our European tower crane business, Although we have not landed any acquisitions, we continue to grow our rental fleet as an avenue in generating rental income, building our used sales efforts and increasing our service work.

Speaker 2

During 2023, we increased our fleet from 124 to 149 units. In terms of acquisitions, we've been active in the space, but unfortunately, the dynamic nature of the market has made it difficult to land the deal. Moving into the next breakthrough, we adjusted our belt and road initiative to emphasize our efforts in the Middle East. During 2023, we launched 2 tower crane models to support this rapidly growing region, the first of which can be found at the 6 Flags construction site in Saudi. In addition, we are investing approximately $3,000,000 in our China factory to improve our capability and throughput to manufacture large tower cranes.

Speaker 2

Concurrently, we are developing 3 large capacity models that will serve the Middle East and will also be a good fit for Hong Kong and Singapore. Our 3rd breakthrough initiative is to expand our aftermarket in North America. During 2023, we started greenfield locations in Denver, Kansas City and Aiken, South Carolina, and we added 22 field service techs. To accelerate the efficiency of our new service technicians, we launched A quick start training program to fast track the development of proficient revenue producing technicians while maintaining a path to certified master technician. Currently, we have roughly 70 students enrolled in this program.

Speaker 2

Our acquisitions of an H and A crane business in Aspen have proven to be extremely successful And now we are in the process of increasing our market share in core territories while seeking additional opportunities to expand. As important, we are focused on increasing our boom truck market share by leveraging the synergies between MGX's geographic reach and Aspen's upfit capabilities. Lastly, we started to transition our all terrain initiative to be more aftermarket oriented. Since we began this initiative, we launched 5 models and we have more in the hopper. New product development will always be a never ending journey in the all terrain business.

Speaker 2

But now that we have a fresh line of cranes, we need to accelerate the aftermarket growth in this space. Within Europe, we are learning to become more flexible and agile with our customers in terms of aftermarket support. During 2023, we added 15 field service techs and hired 3 parts and service sales managers. In addition, after a successful trial period in 2023, We have begun to proactively offer maintenance agreements. And finally, our Manitowoc Way team has been Kaizening our service facilities in Langenfeld, Germany to increase capacity to rebuild cranes.

Speaker 2

The all terrain crane initiative is truly global in scope. For example, In Latin America, we sold 10 used ATs during 2023. These units were trade ins from Europe. On one hand, this helps us on strategic deals with key accounts in Europe. On the other hand, this helps us to compete with Chinese competitors in South America while growing the local population of our cranes.

Speaker 2

This in turn drives future parts and service sales. Concurrently, we nearly doubled our field service tax during 2023 and added a location in Peru to serve local mining customers. We have a long way to go in this endeavor, but I'm really pleased with the progress that we've made. Please turn to Slide 12. During our last analyst call, we restated our financial ambitions, resetting our targets to reflect the gains that we've made in the last couple of years.

Speaker 2

Today, I'd like to draw your attention to a new metric that we are emphasizing ROIC. While we continue to drive for margin expansion, we felt that this metric also helps emphasize effective capital allocation. Please turn to Slide 13. As you can see by the historical chart, it's been a long journey since 2016 It's a great achievement to end 2023 with a return of 11.2%. Our long term goal is 15%.

Speaker 2

Globally, the economy has been on an uneven road since 2020. But at Manitowoc, we continue to execute our long term strategy to reduce our cyclicality and increase our margins by growing our aftermarket. I remain optimistic about the crane market long term. Europe has a huge need for housing. Saudi Vision 2,030 is in full swing and the U.

Speaker 2

S. Infrastructure bill is poised to generate demand. This is exactly the kind of economic backdrop that the industry needs to refresh the aging crane population around the world. With that, operator, please open the line for questions.

Operator

Your first question comes from the line of Jay Ravitch from Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Speaker 2

Good morning, Jay. Hi, Jay.

Speaker 4

Hi, this is Adam on for Jerry. Thanks for taking my question. I was wondering if you could just talk about where labor hours per unit stand today compared to the levels you were seeing pre COVID. And if they do normalize to historical levels, how much of a margin tailwind could that mean for your business?

Speaker 2

I'm not sure I understand your question, Adam. Is it cost of labor? Or is it efficiency?

Speaker 4

Yeah. Just labor hours today compared to pre COVID levels, where are they versus historical levels?

Speaker 2

Don't think it's applicable because there's so many so much mix of hours depending on the machines that we're making.

Speaker 3

Yes. I mean, we're always Looking to improve our efficiency throughout the plant and but I'm not sure we've ever given that level of granularity from an hours per unit perspective.

Speaker 4

Got it. And then can you just update us on your aftermarket Any signs of destocking in parts of the business where you sell through dealers?

Speaker 2

No, I mean the aftermarket business has been good. We've got some strong goals For this year, some of it I think will start in the flatten out because we had such strong growth the last couple of years. But as we said on the call, those service techs we've added And we view those as a path to continue to grow the revenue. But I haven't we haven't seen any major destocking.

Speaker 4

And then last one for me. With supply chain performance continuing to normalize, Could decremental margins be relatively muted as improved productivity offsets lower volumes?

Speaker 3

I think in the mobile business, yes, in the Americas, but when you look at What's hitting us in the face is the and what we've been talking about is the tower crane business in Europe. So That's a pretty significant impact to us in 'twenty four, and that's what's reflected in our guidance.

Speaker 4

Great. Thanks so much.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Mig Dobre from Baird. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Hey, good morning guys. Good morning. Hey, it's actually Joe on for me this morning. Good morning.

Speaker 3

Hi, Joe. How are you doing, Joe?

Speaker 5

Good morning. Doing well. Thanks. I had a couple of questions around guidance. At the midpoint, your guidance assumes net sales of 4%, But EBITDA margin down 80 basis points.

Speaker 5

I know you mentioned unfavorable mix, but can you talk about any other year over year margin headwinds in the guidance?

Speaker 2

The biggest piece of it all is the decline in the EU tower cream business. So it's not just mix in terms of standard margin, but it's also under absorption at those factories.

Speaker 6

Yes. And you saw it

Speaker 3

really in Q4. I mean, our margin in Q4 was 6 0.1%. The implied midpoint is at 7.1%. So obviously better than what we saw in Q4. So but As Aaron mentioned, it's really that tower crane mix.

Speaker 5

Yes. Okay. Makes sense. And then any thoughts on quarterly cadence for sales and EBITDA through the year?

Speaker 3

Yes. I mean, we generally see Q3 as our lowest quarter. Q1 from a comparable perspective, The first half in particular was stronger for tower cranes last year, and we're not that headwind is really impacting us in the first half, Q1, in particular. So Q1 and Q2 from a comp standpoint will definitely be worse. And then Q3, Q4 should normalize.

Speaker 5

Got it. Okay. And then maybe one more. Any assumptions around crane sales versus noncrack crane sales in the guidance?

Speaker 3

We don't give that level of granularity, but as Aaron mentioned, we do have an expectation that we'll continue to grow the non new machine sales.

Speaker 5

Okay. All right. Good luck, guys. Thanks.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Joe.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Seth Weber from Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Speaker 2

Good morning, Seth.

Speaker 7

Hi, guys. Good morning. This is Larry on for Seth this morning. How are you guys?

Speaker 2

Hey, Larry.

Speaker 6

How are you doing?

Speaker 7

Good. I'm doing great. Thanks for taking the questions. I just wanted to ask about orders in January after the light Q4, what you guys are seeing. Obviously, orders were down 33%.

Speaker 7

You did have a comp issue, but just wondering how they're trending in January so far?

Speaker 2

Yes, January was a good month. So we were just shy of $200,000,000 So I think we're continuing on the same path that we've been on for the last several quarters.

Speaker 7

Okay, great. Obviously, you guys have been calling out the EU tower headwinds from the tower market. What are you guys looking forward to kind of look for a bottom or maybe any kinds of firming up there?

Speaker 2

Yes. I mean the first thing we're looking at is just the regulatory environment and what we're seeing from the government and stimulus. So Germany made some moves couple of months back, but it really hasn't hit the construction market. So we continue to track the permits, although that's lagging data. And then of course Within the business we track everyone's utilization.

Speaker 2

So I think when we look at all those pieces right now there's not a whole lot of visibility for the first half. A lot of projects do start in sort of March, April, May timeframe. I'd say that all of the major players have what they need for those projects for the most part. And then, so the next I mean to me the next big sign is really going to come in the probably September ish timeframe Because the summer always slows down, there's not a whole lot of activity in France and Germany in particular in August. So September is when things start to come back on and we've got our normal winter campaign.

Speaker 3

And I'd just say just adding to that from a longer term standpoint, I mean, I think we're excited that there are housing shortages all across Europe. So from a long term standpoint, I think The business is good for us. It's just when it's going to come back.

Speaker 2

Thanks a lot for your time guys. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Tami Zakaria from Manitowoc. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Speaker 6

Good morning, Camille. Hi, this is Alex. Hi, this is Alex. Hi, Camille. Hi, Camille.

Speaker 6

Thank you for taking the question. Hey. I was wondering if you could provide further color on sort of pricing costs for 2024, given current conditions and tire demand. I'm assuming continued added pressure from Chinese Competition in the Middle East, the Japanese yen remains weak at 150. And the cost side, sort of do you expect laborers and elevated high strength fuel prices remain a challenge for 2024?

Speaker 2

Okay. So talking about price to cost, I'd say we've the answer is yes and no in terms of normalization. We've Sort of gone back to normal, let's say. But I think you pointed out many of the key points there. So in the United States, when you've got competitors shipping in when the yen is 150, there's Then I'll put competitive pressure out there as well as steel prices.

Speaker 2

I mean the reality is the current tariffs on steel are not favorable for U. S. Manufacturers. You got Steel in Europe is 1 third less than it is in the United States. So yes, I'd say that within the U.

Speaker 2

S. There's some it's still pretty competitive, As competitive as it's been, so until this strong dollar starts to turn the other way, I think we'll continue to have that pressure. In Europe, It's more just about demand, given that demand is so low for tower cranes, but I wouldn't say there's anything irrational there. And in terms of Chinese competition, that's I'd say mostly in the Middle East and Asia Pac for us and it's been tough. But in most instances, either folks are willing to take Chinese or they're not.

Speaker 2

And if they're not, then it's our normal competitive advantage competitive situation. In terms of headwinds, so I think labor has flattened out. I mean we took a lot of actions last year relative to what our labor rates were. And in terms of steel, I don't think much really changes. I mean we still have this dynamic For the U.

Speaker 2

S. With the current tariff situation is at a disadvantage to all the other major regions for manufacturers.

Speaker 3

I'd say the labor inflation normalizes this year for some, but it's normal going into 'twenty four.

Speaker 6

Okay. Thanks a lot. Super helpful. And just a quick follow-up, I'm just curious, just sort When we look at back at 2023, were there any share shifts in your view, either geographically or product wise that would be noteworthy?

Speaker 2

No, not dramatic. I mean, team has done a great job with the mobile cranes in Europe with some of the new product launches that we had. Nothing dramatic, but we had some gains there in the United States. I'd say it's all pretty steady.

Speaker 6

Okay, understood. Thank you so much. I'll pass it on.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

And there are no further questions at this time. Mr. Warner, I turn the call back over to you.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Before we conclude today's call, please note that a replay of our Q4 2020 conference call will be available later this morning by accessing the Investor Relations section of our website at manitowoc.com. You everyone for joining us today and for your continued interest in

Speaker 2

The Manitowoc Company. We look forward to speaking with you again next quarter.

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Key Takeaways

  • For full‐year 2023, Manitowoc delivered $2.228 billion in sales with Adjusted EBITDA up 23% year‐over‐year to $175 million and margins expanding 90 basis points to 7.9% despite unfavorable product mix.
  • The company’s 2024 guidance anticipates net sales of $2.275–$2.375 billion and Adjusted EBITDA of $150–$180 million, reflecting expected softness in the European tower crane market.
  • Market dynamics remain mixed: U.S. mobile crane demand proved resilient, the European tower crane market stayed anemic, the Middle East (outside of Turkey) remains robust, and China’s construction activity continues to languish.
  • Under the Manitowoc Way, safety improved to a record‐low RIR of 1.01, waste‐to‐landfill fell by 30%, and environmental initiatives cut greenhouse gas intensity by 9% while boosting paint line capacity 44% with a digital monitoring tool.
  • Ahead on its Cranes Plus 50 strategy, Manitowoc grew its European rental fleet from 124 to 149 cranes, expanded North America service with new greenfield sites and 22 field technicians, and is investing $3 million in its China factory to support Middle East demand.
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Earnings Conference Call
Manitowoc Q4 2023
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