Wacker Neuson revenue suffers Covid-19 fall

Germany-based compact equipment manufacturer Wacker Neuson has reported a second quarter year-on-year drop in revenue of over 25% as the Coronavirus pandemic’s impact continues.

As a result, revenues for the first half of 2020 are down by more than 16%, while profit before interest and tax (EBIT) for the first half-year fell by more than 40% from €86.2 million ($102.3 million) to €50.4 million ($59.8 million).

With second quarter sales totalling €385.9 million ($462.4 million), the company posted revenues of €796.7 million (U$S945.8 million) for the six months to June 30 – compared to €952.6 million ($1,131 million) in 2019. The worst decreases were in the Americas and Asia-Pacific.

Against that, the European market contracted by a “relatively low” 8.8%. It contributed €631.4 million ($749.6 million) to the overall total, down from €692.5 million ($822.1 million) 12 months earlier.

“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.

“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 behaviour in the industry.”

The company said the Americas region has been particularly hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, depressing first half revenue by 38% as key accounts, including rental companies, adopted an extremely cautious approach to investments.

Revenue for the first half of 2020 in Asia-Pacific contracted by 24.2%, though China enjoyed a better second quarter after production largely resumed in April.

The company said expects that due to the continuing uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, both the revenue and the EBIT margin will be considerably lower than 2019, when they were €1,900 million ($2,255 million) and 8.1% respectively.