Despite the economic
problems of the last two years, Terex says that the global economy is now
showing the improvement for which the industry and it have been preparing.
With a three-part growth
strategy; business improving worldwide and improvements in order books, the
group is looking to increase net sales to US$8 billion by 2013. Ron DeFeo,
Terex’s chief operating officer, said the company has been seeing increased
order and quotation activity across nearly all of its product categories.
“We’re exporting more from
our US and European plants and we’re also producing more at our plants in the
developing markets,” he said. “We expect strengthening in all geographies, but
the greatest growth will be seen in the developing nations.
“At Terex, we’re seeing
better sales for aerial work platforms, off-road truck and materials processing
equipment. Even in our cranes segment, which is a late cycle business and had
been lagging, we’ve seen improvements in order and quotation rates for several
of our crane categories, including rough terrain cranes for the North American
market.”
DeFeo
always looks forward to CONEXPO, but no more so than this year.
“2011
will be a good year and 2012 will be better still, so the timing for this show
is good. I’m excited because at Terex we’re ready to meet our customers’ demand
with the equipment solutions they’ve told us they want to see and that will
best enable them to see a good return on their investment.”
With a wide breadth of
product offerings, Terex is showing over 50 machines at CONEXPO including new
models.
“After the difficult years
of making the tough decisions required to manage through a global recession,
Terex is now a more focused company, with fewer and more productive
manufacturing facilities,” said DeFeo.
“We have a three-part
overall growth strategy at Terex. First, it’s to build Terex under a common
business system that delivers superior responsiveness serving the broad range
of our customers. We call this the Terex Business System, or TBS. Second, we
will grow within our existing product platforms grouped in our Aerial Work
Platforms (AWP), Construction, Cranes and Materials Processing business
segments. And third, we will seek diversification geographically and
economically, meaning new markets and revenue opportunities adjacent to our
existing businesses.
“We will add new products to
our portfolio through acquisitions, if we can meet our key metrics.
“We are focused on organic
growth and we believe that we can increase net sales to $8 billion by 2013, or
roughly double our 2010 net sales. We have been able to generate that kind of
growth before at Terex and we can do it again. We have completed our period of
divestments and are focused on growing our four business segments.”
With business improving
across the world, led by the developing markets of China, India, Brazil and
Russia [BRIC countries], Terex sees considerable opportunity for itself in
countries that are building their critical infrastructure.
“The economic recovery is
developing more slowly in North America and Europe, but it is under way. Terex
is better positioned to serve existing current and new customers in all these
markets than we have ever been.”
DeFeo added, “I would like
to share a little perspective. It was not long after CONEXPO 2008 that we
experienced the onset of the global recession. Fortunately, while the effects
of the downturn are lingering in many ways, they are also diminishing. We are
now again seeing the real opportunity that lies ahead for our customers to
build their businesses.”
