Earnings Labs

The Manitowoc Company, Inc. (MTW)

Q1 2025 Earnings Call· Wed, May 7, 2025

$13.40

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to The Manitowoc Company First Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ion Warner. Please go ahead.

Ion Warner

Analyst

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our earnings call to review the company's first quarter 2025 financial performance and business update as outlined in last evening's press release. Joining me this morning with prepared remarks are Aaron Ravenscroft, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Brian Regan, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Earlier this morning, we posted our slide presentation on the Investor Relations section on our website at, manitowoc.com, which you can use to follow along with our prepared remarks. Please turn to Slide 2. Before we start, 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 its business. However, actual results could differ materially from any implied or actual projections due to one or more of the factors, among others, described in the company's latest SEC filings. The Manitowoc Company does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether the result of new information, future events or other circumstances. And with that, I'll now turn the call over to Aaron.

Aaron Ravenscroft

Analyst

Thank you, Ion, and good morning, everyone. Please turn to Slide 3. I want to begin by thanking the Manitowoc team for successfully managing a difficult quarter. We generated $471 million in revenue and $22 million in adjusted EBITDA, exceeding our expectations. Orders were a strong $610 million and backlog ended the period just short of $800 million. Our non-new machine sales were $161 million, up 11% year-over-year. In April, we participated in the Bauma Trade Show in Munich, and I was extremely pleased with the industry sentiment and customer feedback throughout the event. We showcased the only hybrid all-terrain crane in the industry that is capable of operating for an entire ship. Additionally, crane operators and owners greatly appreciated the upgraded features on our new all-terrain camps. Customers were thrilled with our new tower cranes as well as a wide range of new aftermarket products and solutions that we exhibited. A big thank you to Ion Warner, Insa Heim and the entire Manitowoc team that made this show a great success. I also send a big thank you to all of our customers and partners that showed up in force. In terms of tariffs, based on what we know today, we are modeling $60 million of incremental costs and have mitigation plans to cover 80% to 90%. This, combined with our strong backlog and growing confidence in the European tower crane business supports our current guidance. Given the fluid nature of the situation and the price elasticity of cranes, we have not factored any major change of demand into our forecast. Brian will provide greater color in terms of exposure. Lastly, in reaction to our recent antidumping claim, the Department of Commerce has initiated an investigation into tower cranes coming from Japan. The first hearing was held on May…

Brian Regan

Analyst

Thanks, Aaron, and good morning, everyone. Please move to slide 5. Overall, our first quarter results exceeded our expectations. During the period, we had orders of $610 million, an increase of 10% from a year ago, bringing our March 31 backlog to $798 million. Higher order intake was primarily driven by the Americas, but we also saw 68% year-over-year increase in new machine orders in the European tower crane business. This is now the third quarter in a row that we've seen a year-over-year increase, signaling what we believe is the beginning of a market recovery. Net sales in the quarter were $471 million, a decrease of 5% from a year ago. Our non-new machine sales were $161 million, up 11% year-over-year, trailing 12 months non-new machine sales were $645 million, another record, continuing the great progress we've been making on our Cranes+50 strategy. SG&A expenses were $83 million or 18% of sales, in line with our expectations which included a portion of the Bauma trade show costs. Our adjusted EBITDA for quarter was $22 million, a decrease of 31% year-over-year. The adjusted EBITDA margin was 4.6%. Please turn to slide 6. Net working capital ended the quarter at $489 million, which is down $20 million year-over-year driven by inventory as we continue to manage our billed schedules. Moving to cash flows. Operating activities provided $13 million of cash during the quarter. Capital expenditures were $11 million, of which $4 million was for our rental fleet. In addition, we spent $13 million to acquire certain assets and territories from Ring Power Corporation. Total outstanding borrowings under the ABL increased $4 million during the quarter leaving $83 million outstanding. Our net leverage ratio was right at our target of 3x and total liquidity was $307 million as of March 31. In…

Aaron Ravenscroft

Analyst

Thank you, Brian. Please turn to Slide 8. Manitowoc was founded in 1902. Since that time, the company has faced plenty of periods of economic upheaval. We managed through two World Wars, two global pandemics, the Great Depression and the more recent Great Recession. And now we face the great global trade reset. A silver lining of COVID was that it shifted our way of thinking, which eventually led to our CRANES+50 Strategy. It became clear that the only way to effectively drive return on invested capital and reduce our cyclicality was to grow our aftermarket, which is less capital-intensive, more predictable and more attractive in terms of margins. It was time for us to transition from a product-dominant business to a customer-focused company. As a result, we made numerous moves that position us to better navigate difficult economic times. In our European tower crane business, we continue to invest in new products in spite of the market downturn, which puts us in a great spot as the market starts to rebound. In addition, we built a small rental fleet that allows greater flexibility to serve our customers and participate more aggressively in the aftermarket. I'm extremely proud of the fact that our team was able to maintain our non-new machine sales throughout the recent downturn. The team has done a great job of positioning us for the recovery that has taken shape. In the Middle East, we've spent a considerable amount of time in Saudi over the last couple of years, listening to the construction companies and our partner, NFT. As a result, beginning two years ago, we fast-tracked several new large tower cranes tailored to the region's giga projects. In addition, we upgraded our facilities to provide us with the needed capability and capacity to build these cranes…

Operator

Operator

We’ll now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Our first question will come from Jerry Revich with Goldman Sachs. You may now go ahead.

AaronRavenscroft

Analyst

Good morning, Jerry.

Jerry Revich

Analyst

Hi. Good morning, everyone. Nice performance this quarter. I wanted to ask if we could just unpack the mitigation to the tariff numbers that you shared. What proportion of that is changes in the supplies versus pricing? And just given your relative competitive position in terms of US manufacturing, could this be an opportunity for you folks to actually benefit from price cost? Because your competitors can be pushing pricing more aggressively given their footprint if tariffs do take up?

Aaron Ravenscroft

Analyst

So in terms of the mitigations, Jerry, there's four big buckets. Of course, there's going to be price increases and surcharges, and we've gotten some alternative sourcing, as well as some of our key vendors have been willing to share in the pain, so that's a good news. I think in general, everyone feels that this is going to be a short-term situation. And so we're trying to find ways to work through it as we get more clarity on the overall subject. That being said, I will say that one of the big challenges we have is with where the yen is and the tariff is only 10%. If you look at where the yen’s moved over the last five, six years, it has moved well more than 10%. So it will be worth to wait and see how that plays out in terms of pricing in the United States. So it's not so clear to say that there's big benefits for us. But again, I think there's a lot that has to play out before we can really answer that question.

Jerry Revich

Analyst

Super. And then the biggest variable in terms of percent tariff rate is on the China side of the $45 million that you gentlemen spoke about in the prepared remarks. How much of that with China and what level of tariff are you assuming for China just so we can set our models if there is progress on that front?

Aaron Ravenscroft

Analyst

Yeah, it's not easy to -- I'm not going to give a clear breakdown, because it's not just China, it's also the steel and aluminum 232 tariffs. Some of that's mix and match and some of it just depends on what our mix is, relative to what machines we make. So it will be a combination of the two. And obviously, the mitigation factors are playing to what tariffs were actually going to get hit with as well. So if the China tariffs comes down, then the mitigation factors likely come down as well.

Jerry Revich

Analyst

Super. And lastly, not to see the increased demand in Europe with the orders that you folks spoke about. Can you just unpack that in terms of what you see on the ground is driving that acceleration? Is it utilization is back at cycle high levels? Or what's driving the level of inflection that you folks are seeing? And how is the current order cadence that you're seeing, obviously, a significantly year-over-year, but how does that compare versus prior cycle highs?

Aaron Ravenscroft

Analyst

Yeah. To me, this is typical recovery because you have easy comps and I don't think that there's -- it's pretty broad-based. I would say if you're in France, people are still very nervous because there's still a lot of concerns relative to the overall economy there. Germany, of course, we had lots of good news in the last couple of weeks relative to what their government is doing. But it's not as if we've seen a big boom. I mean dealer inventory was really low, utilization was really low. So, when you add all those pieces together, that's what's piecing together the recovery.

Jerry Revich

Analyst

Thank you.

Aaron Ravenscroft

Analyst

So, we're a long ways from any peak or anything like that. I think the base was just so low. But it is nice to see that we're moving in the right direction finally.

Jerry Revich

Analyst

Appreciate it. Thank you.

Aaron Ravenscroft

Analyst

Thanks Jerry.

Brian Regan

Analyst

Thanks Jerry.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question will come from Steven Fisher with UBS. You may now go ahead.

Aaron Ravenscroft

Analyst

Morning Steve.

Brian Regan

Analyst

Hi Steve.

Steven Fisher

Analyst

Morning. Thanks. Just wanted to clarify a couple of things on the tariffs first. In terms of the raw materials, such as steel and aluminum that are within your production within the United States are you experiencing higher costs there? Is that part of what you've factored into that $45 million of sort of tariff cost impact within Shady Grove?

Aaron Ravenscroft

Analyst

Yes, that's a portion of it.

Steven Fisher

Analyst

Okay. That's helpful. And then in terms of the backlog, again, not sure kind of what you've factored into those estimates in terms of being able to reprice what you have in the backlog currently? Or is what you've forecasted more just on mitigation efforts on new units going forward?

Aaron Ravenscroft

Analyst

Yes. Because it's just -- because of the nature of tariffs, we'll -- and that hits as the units are imported, we intend to use surcharges to hit what's in the backlog.

Steven Fisher

Analyst

Okay. Got it. And then wondering if you could just give a little more color on the U.S. non-residential construction markets, kind of where are you seeing the momentum in terms of kind of crane utilization and order patterns and a kind of positive momentum and where maybe it's a little more subdued?

Aaron Ravenscroft

Analyst

I think it reflects everything that you see in terms of the data. I mean, data centers are going crazy. I think a bigger part for us, especially if you sort of take a step back and look at where we've been over the last six months, there was a lot of excitement just as we saw 2016 around Trump's appointment or his election win and -- so there's multiple elements for us that go into just as important or like utilization, how the crane rental helps, what the age of their fleets are as well as what our dealers sit. So, I don't think we necessarily have the clear view right into every single end market. But overall, I mean, utilization has been strong up to this point, and there's plenty of big projects out there that keep getting announced in every single day.

Steven Fisher

Analyst

Okay. And then just lastly, on the non-new machine sales, I see the growth there. Can you just maybe unpack some of the drivers there and the visibility that you have for that kind of continuing for the balance of the year?

Aaron Ravenscroft

Analyst

Yes, I'd say it's pretty broad-based. I mean we've seen a little bit of weakness in our parts in the U.S., but nothing dramatic. We've done well in U.S. We've done -- what we've done great in terms of the European tower crane business, quite frankly. But as we add new locations, and we're constantly adding field service techs and we're pushing really hard on used machines and rebuild machines, I'd say it's pretty well across the board.

Brian Regan

Analyst

Yes. And there's a lag in the service tech utilization, too, just because of training and things like that. So, as we continue to grow those service techs, the ones that we -- higher a year ago, start to become more utilized and start to generate more and more revenue for us.

Steven Fisher

Analyst

Perfect. Thanks very much.

Aaron Ravenscroft

Analyst

Thanks, Steve.

Operator

Operator

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Ion Warner for any closing remarks.

Ion Warner

Analyst

Thank you. Please note that a replay of our first quarter 2025 earnings call will be available later this morning by accessing the Investor Relations section of our website at manitowoc.com. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today and for your continued interest in The Manitowoc Company. We look forward to speaking with you again next quarter.

Operator

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.