Terex Corporation (NYSE:TEX) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Tami Zakaria : Hi, good morning. Thank you, so much for taking my question. So, on your slide, you noted about over 35,000 projects approved or awarded in infrastructure, probably more to come. And one of your competitors is increasing capacity in assets equipment. How are you thinking about growing market share if demand accelerates because of these tailwinds?

John Garrison: Yes. Great question. So, from a footprint standpoint, specifically in access with our Genie business, our Monterrey facility really helps us to be globally cost competitive. We are — we’ll have incremental capacity as we begin to ramp that facility as we go forward. And so, we believe we’re in a good position from a capacity standpoint. I mean we’re still producing significantly less in unit volumes than we did in the 2018 type time frame. So, from a capacity standpoint, we believe we’ll have a market growth. From a market share standpoint, our market share has held relatively consistent this year. The team is focused on new product development. And as we look at new product development, we do believe that new product development will help us as we go forward that we’ve launched the new products that we’ve launched, we’ve seen a respective increase in the market position of those products that we launch.

And I can assure you the team has a very active new product development program as we go forward. So, we’ll have leading-edge products that deliver the best total cost of ownership in the industry, and we believe that will position us well going forward in the Genie business.

Tami Zakaria : Got it. That’s very helpful. A quick follow-up. Are you able to quantify the incremental capacity you expect from Monterrey? Is it like a 5% to 10%, 10%, 15%? Any numbers?

John Garrison: I would — I’d quantify it this way and just say today, we’re still at, call it, 15%, plus or minus, maybe even 20% less than we were in 2018, 2019 time frame, so on a unit volume basis.

Operator: Our next question comes from Nicole DeBlase from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Nicole DeBlase : John, congratulations on a very well-deserved retirement.

John Garrison: Thanks, Nicole.

Nicole DeBlase : Maybe just first on the backlog within AWP. Can you just talk a little bit about the mix of NRC versus IRC customers? And also, anything interesting that you’ve seen from a product perspective?

John Garrison: Nicole, I would say the mix is relatively consistent with what we’ve had historically. So, it ebbs and flows quarter-to-quarter with the larger customers in Q4 when you sign their annual agreements, you’ll see that quarter bump up. But if you just look at the backlog, I’d say it’s relatively consistent with historical norms, but it does ebb and flow quarter-to-quarter, especially when you book some of the larger national account orders.

Nicole DeBlase : Got it. And then just thinking about free cash flow into 4Q and then into 2024. I guess it seems like you guys still have quite a bit of opportunity from a working capital perspective. How do you think about that opportunity, particularly on the inventory side? Like can you get back to historical levels of inventory? Can you just walk through that? Thank you.

Julie Beck: Sure. Thanks for the question, Nicole. Yes, the management team is focused on net working capital as a percentage of sales, and it’s actually part of our incentive comp program. So, we’re very focused on it. And we talk about inventory, in particular, a lot in our management meeting. We continue to have a hospital inventory today, but we have reduced that by 68% from last year. And so, it’s at about $20 million. So certainly, that’s an opportunity to inventory as well as we continue extra inventory, and we will continue to do that until the supply chain disruptions abate, but we’re very focused on working capital, and we’ll continue to be focused on it and generate cash.

John Garrison: Nicole, you probably heard me say in the past, just in time turned out to be just late. And so, in the channels, we’re asking our suppliers will carry a little bit more inventory, again, to eliminate the disruptions that we’ve been seeing. And so — but as Julie said, it’s part of our incentive comp system. Return on invested capital is important to the company. And improving return on capital of our working capital, we’re incentivized to drive improvement in that metric as well. And the only caveat I’ll say is a little bit is keeping a little bit more inventory until we see more steady-state supply from the supplier. So — but we’re focused on it.

Operator: Our next question comes from Jerry Revich from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Jerry Revich : Good morning, and John, let me add my congratulations as well. When you took over in 2015, equipment, was at a pretty high point in the cycle and the company was earning sub $2 per share and over $7 today. So, congratulations on the strong transformation here.

John Garrison: Thank you, Jerry.

Jerry Revich : Can I ask in terms of the outlook for normalizing production rates now that logistics for the industry are catching up as we think about what the production cadence looks like in 2024? It feels like we should be looking for a heavier 2Q and 3Q as a mix of total compared to what we’ve seen over the past couple of years as we’ve given deliveries to customers at first quarter, fourth quarter that have been heavier. Is that right? Can we talk about that? Obviously, for Aerials, you’re guiding to sales that are flattish year-over-year in the fourth quarter based on CapEx cadence, it sounds like first quarter is going to be down year-over-year potentially to your customers and bigger shipments in 2Q and 3Q. I just want to run that by and see if that’s consistent with how you’re thinking about normalization.

John Garrison: Yes. Jerry, I think that’s a reasonable assumption. As we indicated, I think the business is all as supply chain continues to improve, we’re going to return to more seasonal patterns. The underlying customer demand seasonal patterns didn’t change. What changed was the industry’s ability to meet those patterns. So, it’s supply chains improved. I think as we transition into ’24, we’re going to see a return to more normal seasonal patterns on bookings, backlogs, deliveries customer order patterns, when customers would like to take equipment. So, I think that’s a reasonable assumption as we head into 2024, Jerry.

Jerry Revich : Super. And John, in Europe, AWP, there’s been ebbs and flows based on product availability. So recently, you folks have been able to ramp up deliveries from Asia that have driven the strong growth. This year, you had mentioned demand might be a touch softer. Can you just talk about how you view as normalized levels of demand in Europe AWP considering before this year, there has been more supply constraints for that part of your footprint?