What are other machinery manufacturers telling their shareholders to expect as they plow ahead into 2024?
CNH (Case IH, New Holland)
For its first quarter (Q1) ending March 31, CNH said sales volumes in North America were down two per cent for higher-horsepower (over 140 hp) tractors, and down 15 per cent for lower-horsepower tractors, while combine sales volumes in the same market were down 17 per cent compared to the year-earlier Q1.
Read Also
Case IH, New Holland dealers to see more integration
CNH plans for “more than 15 new tractor launches, 10 combine launches, 19 crop production launches and over 30 precision technology releases between now and the end of 2027.”
Worldwide, net sales in CNH’s agriculture industry segment were down 14 per cent for the quarter at US$3.37 billion, “primarily due to lower industry volume across all regions and dealer inventory management, partially offset by favourable price realization.” (“Price realization” is a metric showing how successful a company is at achieving its set sticker prices.)
MAIN ARTICLE: Equipment sales to slow in 2024
As for its net sales outlook in the ag segment for full-year 2024, CNH now predicts year-over-year sales to decline by between 11 and 15 per cent. That’s down from its earlier call for an eight to 12 per cent decline.
Claas
The German company, in its 2023 year-end report, said its net sales for North and South America “developed well,” up 17.4 per cent on the year. “Significant growth was generated in North America through new machine sales of combine harvesters and forage harvesters.”
However, it says it expects demand for ag equipment to “decline overall” in 2024 in North America and central and western Europe.
“Amid normalizing inventories, and without the effects associated with the supply chain-related deliveries of prior-year orders that had a positive influence on the past fiscal year, Claas expects a moderate year-on-year decrease in sales in fiscal year 2024.”
Linamar (MacDon, Salford, Bourgault)
Linamar, which includes the Linamar Agriculture operating group in its industrial segment, reported that segment’s overall sales up 24.5 per cent for Q1, due to “exceptional global market share growth for combine drapers” — the company’s single largest ag product line — and closing the deal to buy Saskatchewan ag equipment maker Bourgault.
For 2024, it expects a “continued strong order book” for MacDon which, combined with the Bourgault deal, is expected to support Linamar Ag’s growth at “double digit level,” followed by “moderate” growth in 2025. In its Q1 presentation, it notes that while sales of combines and high-horsepower tractors are expected to be down, the combine draper market is expected instead to be flat in North America in 2024, while sales of windrowers are expected to be flat globally.
Buhler (Versatile, Farm King)
Buhler, in its full-year report released at the end of March, said it projects increased sales for 2024, as it improves against its recent “problems associated with supply chain issues.” The company says it has “a large backlog of sales and continues to have strong demand for its agricultural machinery and equipment.”
The company is coming off a relatively flat 2023, in which it booked sales revenue of $238.5 million, down $1.4 million from 2022.
Kubota
The Japanese company says its Q1 ending March 31 saw a 0.7 per cent decline in revenue in the farm and industrial machinery segment. In North America, the segment “struggled with tractor business due to continuous stagnation of residential market and crop prices decline” while construction equipment sales were “solid.”
In its previous year-end outlook, it had said its overseas sales of farm equipment “are also expected to be firm mainly in India.” In its Q1 report it said that previous outlook remains unchanged.
