The Manitowoc Company, Inc. (MTW) Q2 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good day, and welcome to The Manitowoc Company Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ion Warner, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our earnings call to review the company's second quarter 2026 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 to the Investor Relations section on our website www.manitowoc.com which you can use to follow along with our prepared remarks. Please turn to Slide 2. Please note our safe harbor statement in the material provided for this call. During this 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 I'll now turn the call over to Aaron.

Thank you, Ion, and good morning, everyone. Please turn to Slide 3. The Manitowoc team delivered great results in the second quarter. Sales increased 10%, and adjusted EBITDA increased over 85% versus last year. I'd like to recognize the team's hard work and resilience in navigating what has been a challenging operating environment over the last few years. As Brian will discuss, our core financial performance was among the strongest quarters that we've achieved in recent years, and we are increasing our full-year guidance to reflect the strengthening Crane market. The second quarter marked a number of wins. Number one, safety is the top priority at Manitowoc. Following a slower start of the year, our year-to-date recordable rate improved substantially to 0.79. Number two, we generated strong orders, expanded backlog, increased non-new machine sales, and got our net leverage below our target of 3x. Number three, we started to meaningfully integrate artificial intelligence into The Manitowoc Way. And lastly, number 4, the U.S. Department of Commerce and International Trade Commission confirmed that Japanese crawler crane manufacturers were dumping and took action to level the playing field, applying import tariffs ranging from 12% to 20%. All around, it was a great quarter. A huge thank you to the Manitowoc team. Your hard work paid off. Please turn to Slide 4. We continue to expand the reach of The Manitowoc Way with a focus on the aftermarket business. In addition, we are now leveraging AI to accelerate Kaizen. Recently, we advanced 2 great initiatives that helped get the flywheel moving in these areas. First in July, we held our annual Global Kaizen on our new 8-axle all-terrain crane, which is one of the largest and most complex products we've ever designed. The original objective of the Kaizen was to improve safety and increase productivity for our customers in the field. Remember, these massive machines need to be disassembled for transport and reassembled at the next site. We focused on critical lifting procedures and rigging requirements. During the process, we identified additional opportunities to expand our aftermarket product offering for all-terrain cranes to include standardized rigging kits and ancillary products. We have invested over 100,000 engineering hours in developing this crane, so it is a natural extension to engineer the required rigging equipment into purpose-built service kits. In addition to improving safety, these aftermarket kits will help our customers set up the machine faster in the field. Time is money for our customers. A big thank you to our customers and suppliers that participated in the Kaizen. You are a huge help. In addition, we started to integrate AI into The Manitowoc Way. At the start of the quarter, we presented a first-ever Lessons Learned Award for AI to the French Potain aftermarket team for developing Potain eTech, an AI agent designed to support tower crane field service techs and improve their effectiveness when fixing cranes. While this is in the early stages, it's an AI tool that we can model for our mobile cranes. We've also taken a structured approach to develop Manitowoc's AI capabilities. I held discussions with our Copilot users to better understand how folks are using the tool today and identify opportunities to apply AI in a systematic way. As shown on Slide 5, these are just a few examples of how the team is using AI at Manitowoc. Many of our users are early adopters who have been largely training themselves on AI. As a result, we are taking several actions to accelerate our deployment. Number one, we incorporated AI into our Lessons Learned program to help promote great AI ideas across the enterprise. Number two, we are creating AI training tools to accelerate our user base. In fact, we doubled our users to over 450 this quarter. Number three, we created global AI user groups by function. For our institutional analysts listening to this call, to me, this was like learning how to model an Excel 25 years ago. Hopefully, a coworker could help to teach you a few shortcuts. We needed to create an environment where folks could collaborate. Number four, we are integrating AI into our daily Manitowoc Way activities. Every Manitowoc Way leader is becoming a super user, and they are required to complete at least 1 AI Kaizen per month. This will naturally lead us to create cross-functional teams to tackle problems. And number 5, we are in the process of scoping some larger projects using AI agents for engineering and aftermarket services. Please move to Slide 6. Turning to our Cranes+50 strategy, our non-new machine sales set another record. Non-new machine sales grew 7% year-over-year for the quarter and broke the $700 million mark on a trailing 12-month basis. On our last call, I stated that we needed to drive 4 major buckets to grow our non-new machine sales. Number one, adding more service locations. Number two, growing the number of aftermarket salespeople and field service techs. Number three, increasing sales of complementary lifting accessories. Number four, leveraging technology. During the second quarter, we saw great results in Latin America from driving these 4 Cranes+50 initiatives. In 2023, we established a greenfield operation in Peru to pursue service work with mining customers. As a result, we recently were awarded a 3-year, $2.5 million service contract at one of the world's largest copper-zinc mines. This is exactly what our Cranes+50 strategy is all about. In addition, during the quarter, we launched 2 initiatives at our Shady Grove campus to support our aftermarket activities. First, we opened our rapid response shop to provide faster turnaround on critical aftermarket components such as lacings for crawler cranes and structural repairs for tower crane masts. Second, we established a center of excellence for refurbishing booms on the East Coast. The team developed a specialized fixture, affectionately known as the Boominator that improves safety and productivity for disassembling and reassembling booms. We plan to replicate this fixture at key MGX locations and other global service centers. Please turn to Slide 7. With orders over $700 million this quarter, as you would imagine, the global crane market is fairly strong. Starting with the Americas, the underlying market conditions have remained healthy. Crane utilization remains very high, and dealer inventories are getting pretty lean. Orders from our traditional dealer channel were particularly strong in the quarter as folks replenish inventory, while activity in our MGX business remained relatively stable. As an interesting data point, our ENCORE rebuild business has been slow because crane owners have simply been unwilling to give up their machines. This is a great sign of how strong utilization is in the United States. In conclusion, customer sentiment across North America remains positive, supported by solid end-market activity and healthy fleet utilization. In Europe, the market environment remains mixed with positive developments offset by ongoing challenges. During the quarter, 2 notable trends emerged. Number one, the German government announced additional measures aimed at stimulating economic growth, including tax relief initiatives. And two, the conflict in Iran is creating inflationary pressures across the region. Against this backdrop, our performance was encouraging. Our mobile crane business delivered strong order growth during the quarter. In tower cranes, orders declined modestly year-over-year, but this was entirely attributable to our self-erecting cranes, which are transitioning to the new EN standards in January. We saw accelerated demand the last couple of quarters on a few models, and our build schedule for these models is sold out for the remainder of the year. We continue to see signs of stabilization in key markets, and the tower crane market continues to have strong momentum. In the Middle East, the second quarter was largely consistent with the first. Despite the Iran conflict, customer demand remained solid. While shipments through the Strait of Hormuz have stopped, folks have found alternative shipping routes. That said, a prolonged period of regional instability could eventually affect economic activity and customer investment decisions. For now, we remain cautiously optimistic as customer engagement remains strong, and there appears to be meaningful pent-up demand that could support future equipment purchases once uncertainty subsides. Ending with Asia, the story pretty much remains the same as the first quarter. South Korea is experiencing robust demand driven by the semiconductor industry. Vietnam and Australia continue to be 2 strong markets for us, and we see general strength in the region well into 2027. With that, I'll hand it over to Brian to walk you through the financials before I make a few closing remarks.

Thanks, Aaron, and good morning, everyone. Please turn to Slide 8. Our second quarter results exceeded expectations, driven by improved operational execution, along with the net impact of tariffs. As Aaron mentioned, orders were strong, with a 1.2 book-to-bill supporting a meaningful increase in our backlog. Additionally, our aftermarket business continued to perform well during the quarter. As a result, we are increasing our full-year guidance, which I'll walk through later in my commentary. Moving to the numbers, we had orders of $709 million in the second quarter, an increase of 56% from a year ago. Backlog ended at $1.05 billion, up $110 million from last quarter, and up $321 million from a year ago. Approximately $750 million of the backlog is expected to ship this year. Q2 net sales were $595 million, an increase of $55 million, or 10% from a year ago. Non-new machine sales were $172 million in the quarter, up 6% year-over-year, and on a trailing 12-month basis reached a record $706 million. SG&A expenses were $90 million in the quarter. On an adjusted basis, SG&A expenses were $88 million, or 15% of net sales, 130 basis points lower than a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter nearly doubled year-over-year to $49 million compared with $26 million in the prior year. As a percentage of sales, EBITDA margin expanded 330 basis points to over 8%. The year-over-year improvement was driven by excellent operational execution and a net benefit from tariffs. During the quarter, our cash flow benefited from $26 million of cash received related to IEEPA tariff refunds. From a P&L perspective, there are a lot of moving pieces, but the net year-over-year benefit was $9 million during the quarter. This was comprised of a net benefit of $12 million related to the refund and a year-over-year headwind of $3 million in additional tariff costs. I will get into the full-year impact later when discussing the updated guidance. Please turn to Slide 9. Net working capital ended the quarter at $567 million, improving 280 basis points year-over-year as a percent of trailing 12-month sales. Cash flow from operating activities in the quarter was $8 million. Capital expenditures were $14 million in the quarter, including $9 million for our rental fleet. As a result, our free cash flow was a use of $6 million, an improvement of $68 million from the prior year. As a reminder, in Q2 last year, we paid $43 million related to the EPA settlement. We ended the quarter with $96 million in cash. Total liquidity at quarter-end was $304 million, and our net leverage ratio was approximately 2.6x. This was below our target of 3x as a result of our stronger first-half performance. Please turn to Slide 10. We are updating our guidance and expect full-year net sales of $2.3 billion to $2.4 billion, adjusted EBITDA of $150 million to $170 million, adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.80 to $1.20, and free cash flow of $50 million to $70 million. Please turn to Slide 11. We've included a bridge from our previous midpoint of adjusted EBITDA guidance of $137.5 million to our updated midpoint of $160 million. The bridge reflects the flow-through of the $50 million increased revenue guide at the midpoint, the net impact of tariffs, and variable compensation. While ongoing tariffs are not expected to materially change, the net impact to adjusted EBITDA of the tariff refunds is expected to be $16 million. Additionally, with the improved results, we expect variable compensation to increase. The total impact of these items is $22.5 million at the midpoint. The risk associated with the conflict in Iran is considered in our guidance range. With that, I'll turn the call back to Aaron.

Thank you, Brian. Please turn to Slide 12. To conclude, the global crane market has been remarkably resilient despite the geopolitical environment. The proof is in the pudding. First quarter orders approached $650 million, and second quarter orders exceeded $700 million. As a reminder, July and August are typically slower months due to seasonality and the European holiday period. Even so, our backlog is over $1 billion, and customer sentiment around the world remains pretty darn strong. Importantly, we have yet to see a meaningful contribution from the oil and gas or mining sectors despite higher commodity prices. At the same time, we expect strong demand from the data center and semiconductor investments to continue well into 2027. Bottom line, the fundamentals of our business remain solid. As we continue to launch new machines, execute on our Cranes+50 strategy, and drive continuous improvement through The Manitowoc Way, I believe we are well-positioned to create long-term value for our customers and shareholders. Please turn to Slide 13. Before we close, I would like to recognize Kevin and Dana Simmers and our friends at Brooke's House, a recovery center in Hagerstown, Maryland, that helps women overcome substance abuse. Manitowoc has developed a special relationship with Brooke's House over the years. Beyond our financial support, many Brooke's House graduates have become Manitowoc employees at our Shady Grove facility. Last year, a film titled Clean Hands was produced to tell the story of Kevin and Dana's daughter, Brooke, who succumbed to addiction. The film recently secured a distribution deal following its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. We extend our congratulations to Kevin, Dana, and Charlene Kane at Brooke's House. Their work continues to change lives and strengthen our community. Please watch the movie. It supports a great cause. With that, operator, please open the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Jerry Revich with Wells Fargo.

This is Andrew Azzi on for Jerry. Congrats on a great quarter, by the way. You know, maybe I want to start off with, would you be able to help us out in terms of disaggregating the great 56% year-over-year growth in orders between your various regions, you know, U.S., Canada, Lat Am, Europe, and anything else of note? You know, how much of that reflected dealer stocking or orders tied to specific projects? We'd love to get some more color there.

Yes, I mean, I don't think we share much more color than what we put into the script in terms of actual percentages, but I think we pretty well outlined, you know, there's good strength in the U.S. Definitely dealers were replenishing, although dealer inventory is still on the low side, we feel like. But yes, demand has been pretty strong everywhere.

Great. You know, given the updated guidance, how can we think about the cadence of revenue and EBITDA through the second half, and what kind of incremental margins can we underwrite in that same period and maybe into '27?

Yes, as I'm sure you know, we have our normal seasonality with Q3 being lighter because of the European holiday. With that said, we do expect about $4 million of incremental tariff benefit in Q3, because some of its hung up on the balance sheet. But, you know, the normal seasonality outside of that $4 million is what you can expect.

[Operator Instructions] At this time, there are no questions. I'd like to hand it back to Ion Warner to take questions from submissions.

Thank you. I received a few e-mails, questions. One question is, please provide the IEEPA tariff bridge of $26 million to the $12 million year-over-year benefit.

And I'll take that Ion. So as we mentioned in our prepared remarks, we received $26 million of refunds and we recognized $12 million in operating income during the quarter. As I mentioned, we have another $4 million coming in Q3. And then when reconciling to the other $10 million, we have some amounts that we're going to refund to customers. We have some corrections of previously recognized tariff costs. And then we also recognized about $1 million in interest income during the quarter.

Okay, next question I received is that now that your net leverage is below 3x, how do you view your capital allocation strategy?

So I'll take that one. We feel much better about our balance sheet. I mean, this is where we've really been focused in terms of the business and managing our cash and our CapEX just to get to this point. So happy to be below 3x, and anytime we're below 3x, you know, we're opportunistically looking for share repurchases as well as we're looking for acquisitions. So happy to be where we are.

Okay. I received another question. What are your July orders like?

Yes, July was another great month. We're over $200 million. So that's normally a slow month for us. We'll have to wait and see how August plays out. But usually, September is a good sign for what the cadence will look like as we get into the fourth quarter.

Got it. There are no further questions by e-mail. Bailey, anything on your end?

There are no further questions on the audio line.

Okay. Please note that a replay of our second quarter 2026 earnings call will be available later this morning by accessing the Investor Relations section of our website at www.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.

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