Essex Rental Corp. has announced its unaudited consolidated results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2011.
Highlights:
- Crawler crane utilization increased to 39.8% for the year ended December 31, 2011 from 37.5% for the year ended December 31, 2010;
- Average monthly crawler crane rental rates increased by $523 to $16,391 for the three month period ended December 31, 2011 from $15,868 for the quarter ended September 30, 2011. Crawler crane utilization decreased slightly over the same period from 39.5% to 38.3%;
- Rough-terrain crane utilization for the year was 62.0% validating our strategy of increasing the number of units in this segment of our rental fleet by 25.5% during the preceding 12 months;
- Utilization rates for our self erecting tower cranes remained relatively flat while utilization on larger tower cranes improved 2.5% over the same period and on certain units is approaching 60%; and
- New, used and rental equipment sales totaled $5.4 million for the fourth quarter, a 6.9% decrease from $5.8 million for the three months ended September 30, 2011.
"Rental rates continue to be stable and on a full-year basis we achieved a 2.3% increase in crawler crane utilization from 37.5% in 2010 to 39.8% in 2011," said Ron Schad, president and CEO of Essex. "We are continuing to focus on selling rental fleet assets with low utilization such as certain classes of crawler cranes and other non-core assets with shorter economic lives, which we believe generate a return of capital instead of a return on capital. These non-core assets that were acquired as part of the Coast Acquisition include aerial work platforms and forklifts.
"Following the implementation of our IT systems at Coast, we commenced a number of proactive initiatives which are aimed at enhancing both our equipment rental and our parts and service profitability," added Schad. "We have also successfully completed the consolidation of Coast's finance and accounting functions within our Buffalo Grove, Ill., headquarters. We expect that this consolidation will generate approximately $350,000 in annual savings."
