Material handling equipment manufacturer Hyster-Yale posted strong direct sales in the first quarter, partially offsetting a 32.8% drop in dealer sales.
HYG Financial Services (HYGFS), a joint venture owned 20% by Hyster-Yale and 80% by Wells Fargo Financial Leasing, received $1.4 billion in loans from Wells Fargo in Q1, up 7.7% year over year, according to the company’s May 6 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Hyster-Yale’s dividends from HYGFS, which provides lift truck financing for Hyster-Yale dealers and customers in the United States, rose 81.8% YoY to $8 million. Hyster-Yale’s incremental obligations to Wells Fargo, which removes receivables guaranteed from HYGFS’ loans, increased 2% YoY to $246.6 million.
BY THE NUMBERS: Despite global market volatility, the lift truck booking market showed “encouraging signs of recovery in the Americas,” President and Chief Executive Rajiv Prasad said during the company’s earnings call today.
“The market is expected to further stabilize throughout 2025,” he said. However, “that improving view could change due to potential tariff effects, which we believe caused customer order hesitation in April. To support the first-quarter bookings growth, our production rates are expected to increase in the second quarter.”
Cleveland-based Hyster-Yale reported in Q1:
- Dealer sales for the Americas totaled $288.2 million, down 31.9% YoY;
- Direct sales for the Americas jumped 25.1% YoY to $173.5 million;
- Total revenue for the Americas rose 9.2% YoY $698.9 million;
- Total dealer sales declined 32.8% YoY to $415.6 million;
- Total direct sales rose 24.7% YoY to $174.9 million; and
- Total revenue fell 13.8% YoY to $910.4 million.
BIGGER PICTURE: As tariffs create uncertainty, the company is applying lessons learned from pandemic-era supply chain disruptions and inflation by “proactively monitoring our input costs, taking action to reduce them where possible and quickly adjusting sales prices to offset any remaining cost increases,” Prasad said during the call.
“In [Q1] we adjusted our prices to address component inflation since our last broad pricing action in 2022 and to include non-tariff-related cost increases,” he said.
The company’s expanding lineup of “modularly designed” vehicles will allow it to “maximize output across our global manufacturing network while minimizing input costs,” he said.
NOTEWORTHY: Nuvera, a fuel-cell power solutions provider and subsidiary of Hyster-Yale, recently realigned its business to focus on increased production of lithium-ion battery modules, which are expected to “increasingly replace lead acid batteries in electric forklift trucks,” Prasad said.
Nuvera is also working to develop and scale hybrid-electric charging platforms to deliver off-grid power solutions, he said.
MARKET REACTION: Shares of Hyster-Yale [NYSE: HY] were down 4.6% from market open to $38.68 as of market close today. It has a market capitalization of $684.5 million.
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