Meritor, Inc. Business Report FY ended Sep. 2015
Financial Overview |
(in million USD) |
| FY ended Sep. 30, 2015 |
FY ended Sep. 30, 2014 |
Rate of Change (%) |
Factors | |
| Overall | ||||
| Overall Sales | 3,505 | 3,766 | (6.9) | 1) |
| Operating Income | 128 | 217 | (41.0) | |
| EBITDA | 339 | 324 | 4.6 | - |
| Commercial Truck & Industrial | ||||
| Sales | 2,739 | 2,980 | (8.1) | 2) |
| EBITDA | 216 | 218 | (0.9) | - |
Factors
1) Overall
-Income in the fiscal year that ended in Sept 2015 was USD 3,505 million, a decrease from the USD 3,766 million achieved in the previous year. The decrease was attributable to the strong valuable of the US dollar in relation to the euro and Brazilian real. Furthermore, worsening economic conditions in South America and China led to decreased production volumes. In addition, when compared to the previous year, the defense business recorded lower profits. This decrease in production was offset by robust sales in the North American Class 8 truck market, which was strong since 2006.
2) Commercial Trucks/Industrial-Use Vehicles
-Sales revenue at the Commercial Truck/Industrial Vehicle Business for the fiscal year that ended in September 2015 was USD 2,739 million dollars, or an 8.1% year-on-year (y/y) decrease. The decrease resulted from negative currency translation due to the strong US dollar against the euro and Brazilian real, which created a decrease amounting to USD 193 million.
Business Alliance
-Brakes India and the Company formed a licensing and technology assistance agreement in India for Meritor's ELSA line of air disk-brakes. This latest alliance is an expansion of the two companies' existing, long-term business alliance in India dealing with B-frame hydraulic disk-brakes, air drums, and air disk-brakes. (From a May 7, 2014 press release)
US Domestic Operations
-In 2013, the Company announced its three-year management plan "M2016". Under the plan, the Company will focus on four areas, which are: (1) raise business operating efficiency, (2) stay focused on customer value, (3) lower production costs, and (4) invest in highly efficient human resources. The following objectives have been set to be achieved in the fiscal year ending in September 2016.
- Improve EBITDA margin to 10%
- Lower net debt (including expenses for retirement pay) by USD 400 million, to less than USD 1.5 billion
- Grow the business annually by USD 500 million (run-rate base)
Focusing on Customer Value
-The Company collaborates with customers on designing axles, brakes, drivelines, and suspension systems, working together with customer production plans to increase product value. The following are some achievements during FY2015.
- Delivering real axles to PACCAR in North America, Australia, and Brazil. In addition, acquiring standard position in front-steering axles.
- Launched production of a competitive 2.28 gear ratio 14X axle platform that can be integrated with a RPL35 Series driveline. As a result, this integrated system can more effectively respond to higher torque by down speeding.
- The Defense Business announced that it had won an eight-year contract to deliver wheel-ends to 17,000 military vehicles built by Oshkosh. In addition, from January 1, 2017 to 2019, the Defense Business will deliver AWDs to 2,300 military trucks built by Navistar.
- In 2016, the Company won a six-year contract to deliver rear-drives, front steering axles, and brakes to 800 buses built by MC, which were bought by the New Jersey Public Transportation Corporation.
Customer Order
-Meritor WABCO announced that its SmartTrac lateral-skidding (stability control) system is being mounted on the Saf-T-Liner C2 bus built by Thomas Built Buses. Thomas Built Buses plans to begin mounting the SmartTrac systems from September 2015. SmartTrac is an active safety system that automatically intervenes in the vehicle's maneuvering when the vehicle is at risk of rolling over and going out of control or losing directional stability. (From a September 9, 2015 press release)
-The following customer orders were either ongoing or new in the fiscal year that ended in September 2014.
- (Ongoing): Agreement to deliver axles to Volvo in Europe and South America until the end of December 2021.
- (Ongoing): Agreement to deliver axles to Volvo in Australia until May 2019.
- (Ongoing): Agreement to deliver axles and drivelines to Volvo in North America until May 2019.
- (Ongoing): Agreement to deliver axles and brakes to Hino Motors., Ltd. until March 2017.
- (New): Four-year agreement to deliver products to Daimler Trucks North America.
- (New): Agreement to deliver air disk-brakes (ELSA225H) to Scania built trucks and buses, starting from 2014.
Awards
-Meritor WABCO, recognized for its quality and on-time deliveries, announced that it was awarded the 2015 Platinum Supplier Award from Wabash National. Meritor WABCO delivers its SmartTrac systems; anti-locking brake system (ABS) and lateral-slide, stability control-systems for trailers; InfoLink data gateway systems; and other products to Wabash. (From an October 6, 2015 press release)
-Meritor WABCO announced that it has received the 2014 Excellence in Quality Award from Hino Motors Manufacturing U.S.A., Inc. Meritor WABCO has been recognized with this award five times in the past seven years. Meritor WABCO supplies Hino with pneumatic and hydraulic anti-lock braking systems (ABS) for commercial vehicles built in Williamstown, West Virginia, USA and Woodstock, Ontario, Canada. In addition to the zero PPM quality performance for Hino, Meritor WABCO's on-time delivery performance was 100 percent for 2014. (From a press release on July 21, 2015)
R&D Expenditure |
(in million USD) |
| FY ended Sep. 30, 2015 |
FY ended Sep. 30, 2014 |
FY ended Sep. 30, 2013 |
|
| Overall | 69 | 71 | 71 |
R&D Facilities
| Name | Location |
| Technical Center | Troy, Michigan, USA Cameri, Italy Cwmbran, UK Bangalore, India |
| Engineering Center | Cienega de Flores, Nuevo Leon, Mexico Osasco and Resende, Brazil Shanghai and Xuzhou, China Mysore, India |
-The Company announced that it has won a customer order to supply its ELSA225H air disk-brakes to trucks and buses built by Scania, planning to launch production in 2014. The Company is investing USD 58 million dollars in its technical center and production plant in Cwmbran, Wales, in order to enhance its production capacity of air disk-brakes. The Company so far has produced an aggregate total of four million units of its ELSA Series brakes. (From a Dec. 11, 2013 press release)
Product Development
Collision Mitigation System (OnGuard)
-Meritor WABCO announced the OnGuard Collision Mitigation System is now available for use in medium-duty trucks, another first in the industry. Used extensively in heavy-duty trucks since 2007, OnGuard is North America's leading collision mitigation system, with more than 90,000 systems and over 32 billion miles now on the road. A new member of the OnGuard family to be made available to medium- and heavy-duty trucks in 2016 is OnGuardACTIVE, which warns and brakes when detecting stationary objects, to mitigate or possibly avoid a potential accident. (From a press release on September 3, 2015)
Investment Amount |
(in USD millions) |
| FY ended in Sept 2015 | FY ended in Sept 2014 | FY ended in Sept 2013 | |
| Company wide | 79 | 77 | 54 |
| Commercial truck/Industrial-use vehicles Business | 71 | 71 | 46 |
-The Company announced that it would acquire a majority of the assets of Sypris Solutions' plant located in Morganton, North Carolina in the USA. The plant manufactures trailer axle-beams for Meritor, in addition to machining carriers, differentials, and other products. It is manufacturing parts for light vehicles also, delivering them customers besides Meritor. (From a July 10, 2015 press release)