Milwaukee-based Joy Global Inc. reported fourth quarter income from continuing operations of $212 million, or $1.99 per share, up from $195 million, or $1.83 per share, in the same period a year ago.
The company’s net sales in the quarter increased 19 percent to $1.6 billion from a year earlier.
Early in the year, the U.S. thermal coal market experienced a significant loss of coal demand to natural gas for power generation. By early summer, U.S. economic growth remained sluggish and lingering sovereign debt issues pushed Europe to the brink of recession. With weakness in both of its main trading partners, China exports began to soften and its economic and industrial growth decelerated. China consumes the majority of the worlds mined commodities, which has a disproportional impact on commodity demand. Additionally, growth in steel production has been flat for the year and this limited demand upside for iron ore and metallurgical coal.
“Our entire organization did an outstanding job of catching up on deliveries and giving us an exceptional finish to fiscal 2012,” said Mike Sutherlin, president and chief executive officer of Joy Global. “This strong execution will be important as we begin adjusting to the lower volumes that we expect for 2013. We are setting our plans for 2013 on the basis that current market conditions continue. Although there is upside potential in our markets, the timing is uncertain and unlikely to occur until current excess mine capacity is reduced.”
The company expects fiscal 2013 earnings per share to be between $5.90 and $6.50 on revenues of $4.9 billion to $5.2 billion.
The firm will continue restructuring in 2013, with a focus on balancing and optimizing its global manufacturing footprint. Those costs are expected to be approximately $25 million, including the disposition or write-down of related assets.
