Essex drops AWPs to focus on recovering crawler canes

May 27, 2013–Essex Rental Corp completed the sale of its aerial work platforms and forklifts in January, sharpening the
company's forcus on crane rental, which showed gradual recovery in 2012
results. The company has officially has exited the work platform and forklift
market, where it admits it lacked competitive advantage and was not able to
leverage its crane expertise.


Essex reports that crawler crane
utilization increased in every quarter of 2012 and in the final period stood at
44.8 percent, up from 38.3 percent in 2011.

Earnings
have been positive. The company posted EBITDA earnings in the fourth quarter of
$5 million, in contrast to $2.1 million in 2011. Yearly earnings nearly
doubled, to $17.2 million.

In its
2012 year-end financial reports, Essex said it will continue to identify opportunities to sell
rental fleet assets underused during historic peak demand periods and use the
proceeds to reduce outstanding debt. During 2012, it sold $17.3 million of
non-core and excess rental fleet assets (at 109 percent of appraised orderly
liquidation value) to reduce its debt by $10.9 million.

Related Link

www.essexrentalcorp.com