The Manitowoc Company, Inc. (NYSE:MTW) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call May 8, 2024 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Ion Warner - SVP, Marketing and IR
Aaron Ravenscroft - President and CEO
Brian Regan - EVP and CFO

Conference Call Participants

Clay Nelson - Goldman Sachs
Mircea Dobre - Baird
Stephen Volkmann - Jefferies
Tami Zakaria - JPMorgan
Clifford Ransom - Ransom Research

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Abby and I will be your conference operator today. At this time I would like to welcome everyone to the Manitowoc First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call.

I would now like to turn the call over to Ion Warner, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Investor Relations. You may begin your conference.

Ion Warner

Good morning everyone and welcome to the Manitowoc conference call to review the company's first quarter 2024 financial performance and business updates, as outlined in last evening's press release. Participating on the call today are Aaron Ravenscroft, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Brian Regan, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Today's webcast includes a slide presentation, which can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website under Events & Presentations. We’ll reserve time for questions and answers after our prepared remarks. I’d like to request that you limit your questions to one and a follow-up and return to the queue to ensure everyone has an opportunity to ask their questions.

Please turn to Slide 2. Please note our Safe Harbor statement in the material provided for this call. During today's call, forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, are made based on the company's current assessment of its markets and other factors that affect its business. However, actual results could differ materially from any implied or actual projections due to one or more of the factors, among others, described in the company's latest SEC filings.

The Manitowoc Company does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement whether the result of new information, future events or other circumstances.

And with that, I'll now turn the call over to Aaron.

Aaron Ravenscroft

Thank you, Ion and good morning, everyone. Please turn to Slide 3. Today, I'd like to start with my update on market conditions. Our orders for the first quarter were up 6% year-over-year. Total backlog ended the period at a strong $971 million. In the US, crane activity around the country remains strong. Utilization and rental rates continue to hold up and although short-term is a bit mired by the election cycle, the overall outlook remains positive.