Thomas J. Riordan - President and Chief Operating Officer
Analyst · UBS
Thanks, Phil, and good morning, everyone. I will cover our current views of end markets and business conditions and discuss in detail the changes we're making to address how Terex is adapting to this rapidly changing economic environment. Our Aerial Work Platform business had a tough quarter with revenue down 8.9% and orders down 20.6% versus prior year. Western Europe has been particularly affected in the last eight weeks. Profitability in Q3 was significantly impacted by lower sales volumes, cost pressures primarily from steel and reduced build rates. We estimate the material cost increase has negatively affected this business by $34 million in the quarter or over 6 points of margin. Using the last several months' order rates and the detailed conversations with our customers as a barometer, we have announced significant reductions in staffing levels across the organization in an effort to lower SG&A and overhead costs to levels commensurate with expected volume reductions. We have already adjusted build rates to reduce inventory even at these lower sales levels using shutdown days while staffing levels are adjusted. We have announced and implemented reductions of 24% of our workforce compared to June 2008 in addition to the elimination of a sizable force of temporary help in July. If additional reductions are required to stay in balance with our customers, we will quickly address that. Additionally, we're reviewing major structural changes to our global logistics and warehousing system with the goal of reducing cost and working capital while improving customer responsiveness. Net inventory was reduced by $77 million in the quarter, a very positive step. Based on competitive pressures, pricing is proving challenging. While our customers understand the implications of higher material costs and the need for their suppliers to remain financially healthy, industry data suggests we're maintaining and in some cases slightly growing share. We intend to defend our market position vigorously while working to secure the price increases already announced for next year. We have seen from our suppliers some recent token price reductions on steel and other components. Based on that and other reasons, we believe we may be near the peak of the raw material cost impact at AWP. We expect to turn these token decreases into meaningful reductions which will start showing meaningful results early next year. Let's move on to construction. Our sales were up modestly, although when we exclude foreign exchange and acquisitions, we were down about 10%. Order rates in Asia and Africa remain solid, but not enough to offset softness throughout Europe. The U.S. market continues to be depressed. Profitability was impacted by a tough pricing environment as we push to sell already built units; continued material cost pressures; purchase price variance was $11 million in the quarter; and by reduced build volumes. Inventory was lowered by $46 million in the quarter, most of which was exchange rate, and we expect the inventory reductions to continue. Our belief is that the market environment of pricing will remain difficult, and we're focused on reducing cost as a primary method of restoring profitability to this business. Reductions are being made in staffing throughout all parts of the organization, along with significant shutdown days. We have a number of facilities that are under review as part of the structural changes needed in this business along with aggressive product cost reduction programs and supply chain rationalization. While speed is critical in reducing costs, we also need to ensure we manage the structural changes, so we position the business for true improvements. We expect to have a further 17% workforce reduction in the next several quarters as we change our cost structure. On a more upbeat note, our Cranes business had another terrific quarter with revenue up 36%. Excluding the charges for the crane repair program mentioned in the press release, the operating margin in the quarter was 14.4%. Demand and order rates continue strong, and product pricing and material cost increases continue to approximately balance each other. The press release has a detailed backlog presentation showing adjusted backlog of 50%, as Phil had mentioned. We continue to see a shift towards higher capacity of higher value products. Investment in engineering and development of new products continues to be very robust, and we're being judicious on capital for capacity expansion. We're seeing some signs of caution with some of our customers, but more on the financing availability than a change in marketing conditions for crane usage. We have demonstrated we can successfully secure financing for our customers as needed, even during these past several weeks. The Materials Processing & Mining segment also had a terrific quarter, mostly led by the mining business. The recent MINExpo show was very well attended with the majority of customers being very bullish despite recent commodity pricing changes. We believe that current commodity prices are still in the range to support future capital investments. Order rates continue to be strong, and there are no real indications of reduction in capital spending by larger customers, although we are seeing some slowdown in orders from independent smaller customers due to financing availability. As I mentioned earlier, when customers have gone through Terex Financial Services, we have not had a problem in securing financing. Backlog continues to be at historically high levels, and similar to our Cranes business, we remain optimistic in the medium-term outlook. Our material processing business has historically been tied to the construction cycle. We have seen a substantial slowdown in orders in this business in Q3 with some order cancellations. This is particularly true with many of our European customers and dealers who tend to be smaller entrepreneurial businesses. We have aggressively reduced our contract workforce and build rates and are taking steps to lower our cost structure, both short term and long term, by reductions in force along with structural changes. As noted in the press release, we have cut production rates by as much as 50% compared to the first half 2008 rates. Net inventory went up $11 million in Q3, and we expect to be back to more traditional inventory turn levels by Q1. This business traditionally has been very flexible in responding to market inflections, up and down, and we expect this time to be no different. The Roadbuilding & Utilities business has continued to gradually improve with some exceptions. Our concrete mixer truck business continues to be very challenged and the roadbuilding business in the U.S. continues to search for signs of increased activities from its customers. Utilities continues to do well, although there are signs of financing being much more challenging for some of our customers. Our Brazilian roadbuilding business is having a terrific year and other U.S.… non-U.S. markets are doing just fine. We will continue to invest in diversifying our customer base in developing markets, which represents 26% of our revenue in Q3, up from 22% in 2007. We're achieving this growth through enhanced local distribution and dealer development, dedicated in-country resources to leverage the overall Terex portfolio of products and signs of success in local manufacturing, such as our facility in Brazil. In addition to the cost reductions I covered already, we will continue to look for opportunities to reduce overhead in all areas. After the 1st of the year, the Roadbuilding business will be moved into the Construction segment and the Utilities business will become part of the AWP segment. In each case, there are synergies for sharing facilities in overhead structure, along with being able to redeploy the RBU, Roadbuilding & Utilities, segment team who has done a very nice job into other value-added activities. In line with appropriate accounting treatment, our financial statements will reflect this change starting with Q1 2009 financials. We're also reviewing other key initiatives and programs at every part and every level of our business to ensure we're eliminating waste and prioritizing resources in light of current market realities. Terex continues to have significant opportunities to improve, and we will be judicious in balancing short-term cost reductions versus continuing to invest in long-term improvements. As I mentioned earlier, there are some early signs of progress on reducing material input costs, steel primarily, with our supply management team. Fully, 50% of our supply management team is deployed full time on raw steel and fabricated part cost reduction. We're finding a great deal of interest from offshore steel mills and fabrication suppliers with numerous projects, sampling and qualifying production parts are underway. It is too early to declare victory on material inflation, but the signs are promising. At this point, I'll turn it back to Ron.