Joy Global has announced its 4Q14 and full year results as weak commodity markets continued to hits bottom line.
4Q14 results
Operating profit (excluding unusual items) rose to US$197 million in the fourth quarter compared to US$193 million in 2013 as higher service volumes, favourable manufacturing cost absorption and savings from the company’s cost reduction programme boosted performance. Sales of services were up 7% q/q to US$743.2 million, helping to offset a 20% drop in original equipment sales.
Bookings, however, were down substantially with original equipment bookings down 63% and service bookings down 9%. Consolidated bookings totaled US$783 million for the quarter, down from just under US$1.1 billion over the same period last year. Underground equipment bookings suffered most, dropping 69% on 4Q13; opencast equipment bookings dropped 51%.
Full year results
For the year, the company recorded an operating profit of US548.6 million (excluding unusual items), a drop of almost 43.7% on 2013. Sales were down 25% from just over US$5 billion in 2013 to US$3.8 billion in 2014. Within this, sales of original equipment were down 47%, while sales of services dropped just 6%.
Bookings of original equipment were down 26% over the year, while bookings of services rose slightly by 2%. Meanwhile, services accounted for 71.8% of total bookings and 68% of sales in 2014, showing the continuing weakness in demand for original equipment. In contrast, services represented only 45% of sales in 2013.
Outlook
The company expects the squeeze on CAPEX to continue through 2015 with expected consolidated revenue in the range of US$3.6 – US$3.8 billion.
Written by Jonathan Rowland.