Sales declined 17.5 percent to $769.5 million during the fiscal fourth quarter of 2015 for JLG, the access equipment segment of Oshkosh Corp. A slowdown in the order rate in North America was the primary driver of lower shipments in the fourth quarter and was partially offset by improved shipments in Europe.
A stronger U.S. dollar also negatively impacted access equipment shipment sales by $26.2 million. On a constant currency basis, the decrease in access segment sales was $14.7 percent.
Access equipment segment operating income dropped 55.7 percent to $56.5 million, or 7.3 percent of sales, for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015, compared to $127.4 million or 13.7 percent in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014.
“Fourth quarter earnings were in line with our revised expectations,” said Charles Szews, Oshkosh Corp. CEO. “As we expected, our access equipment and concrete mixer businesses experienced soft demand in the fourth quarter, but construction activity in North America and Europe remains on the upswing, which we believe will lead to stronger demand for these products in coming months.”
Szews said the company expects the access equipment and concrete mixer markets to be soft in the first half of fiscal 2016, improving once the 2016 construction season gets underway.
For the entire company, fiscal fourth quarter sales were $1,578.3 million compared to $1,667.7 million in the same period a year ago, a 5.4-percent year-over-year decrease.
