Sales for the second quarter of 2020 are down 25.4 percent compared to 2019, reported Wacker Neuson Group, to about $455 million (385.9 million euro). The company cited Covid-19’s effect on markets, and said first half revenue is down 16.4 percent, to about $940 million.
“After a positive start to fiscal 2020, the economic situation took a sharp downturn from the middle of March onwards due to the rapid spread of the coronavirus,” said CEO Martin Lehner in a prepared statement. “Widespread lockdowns created extremely challenging conditions for our business and disrupted supply chains. Interruptions to our customers’ construction activity and the high degree of uncertainty surrounding the future development of the pandemic had a clearly negative impact on investment behavior in the industry.”
The Americas region has been particularly hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, depressing first-half revenue by 38.0 percent to about $169.1 million. The company cited key accounts, including rental companies, which were adopting an extremely cautious approach to investments.
The company said Europe’s share of total revenue increased “noticeably” during the first half of 2020 to reach 79.3 percent. Some European markets, in particular central European countries, were not as strongly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic as the Americas, the company said, so revenue for Europe decreased by a relatively low 8.8 percent.
In the construction sector, Germany, Austria and Switzerland in particular proved to be robust. The Group benefited here from its extensive direct sales network, which helped soften the impact of widespread lockdowns in southern European countries, France, and the UK.
Earlier in the year, Wacker Neuson withdrew its guidance for fiscal 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting uncertainty regarding business development. As it remains impossible to predict the effects the pandemic could have on the global economy and on the Group’s sales markets and supply chains, it is still not feasible to formulate reliable, concrete new guidance, it said.
The company is re-evaluating all planned investments and aims to postpone them wherever possible and advisable in order to further secure liquidity.
Source: Wacker Neuson