Oshkosh CEO still bullish over international vehicle sales

By John Liang / April 26, 2018 at 4:54 PM

Despite the absence of international Mine Resistant Ambush Protected-All Terrain Vehicle sales the previous quarter, Oshkosh's chief executive still has a positive outlook regarding international demand for the company's vehicles.

Defense segment net sales for the previous quarter decreased 4 percent to $428.2 million, Oshkosh said today. "The decrease in sales was due to the absence of international Mine Resistant Ambush Protected-All Terrain Vehicle (M-ATV) sales in the second quarter of fiscal 2018, largely offset by the continued ramp up of sales to the U.S. government under the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) program," according to a company earnings statement.

"In addition to multiple opportunities to sell JLTVs internationally, there are other opportunities we are pursuing that will be felt . . . throughout the quarter," Wilson Jones told Wall Street analysts during an April 26 earnings call. "The timing of awards from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia may be delayed as the Saudi government executes on its 2030 Vision. As part of this initiative, we recently met . . .  to discuss partnering opportunities for our tactical wheeled vehicles with local Saudi industry."

Oshkosh's defense business "exhibited strong execution and solid results in the quarter, [with] the continued successful ramping up of production of the JLTV offsetting much of the volume decline of international M-ATVs. The focus on operational execution was evident in the strong operating income margin achieved without the benefit of M-ATV sales," Jones said.

Overall, Oshkosh reported company-wide quarterly sales of $1.89 billion, a 16.6 percent increase compared to the same quarter in 2017. "The company reported double-digit percentage sales growth in all non-defense segments," the Oshkosh statement reads.

Oshkosh said it now expects overall sales for 2018 to be $7.4 billion to $7.6 billion, an increase of $300 million from the company’s previous sales estimate range of $7.1 billion to $7.3 billion.

195523