Suzanne Heywood, Chair and Acting Chief Executive Officer of CNH Industrial, said: “CNH Industrial is continuing to implement measures to quickly adapt and react to the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID19 outbreak. We have prioritized four issues: the health and wellbeing of our employees; the continuity of our business from a liquidity, cost management and market presence perspective; the strength of our dealer network and our supplier base; and supporting our customers and the communities in which we operate. We are dedicated to ensuring we emerge from this public health crisis a stronger and more efficient company, and that our customers and other stakeholders, operating in many end markets essential to the well-being and prosperity of society, know that we have given them the best support possible throughout this extraordinary time. Our available liquidity position was $9.9 billion at March 31, 2020, the second highest level in Company history at the end of the first quarter, providing a solid cash base and headroom within our credit facilities to navigate this uncertain and challenging environment. The Company has recently demonstrated its ability to access funding programs enacted by governments as public responses to the COVID-19 outbreak. Management has modeled a variety of different scenarios on the evolution of the current extraordinary circumstances and is focusing its efforts on selecting the optimal response strategies to each potential scenario. Persisting uncertainties in evolving end-market conditions, together with possible further disruptions in our supply chain do not allow us to provide helpful guidance on the second quarter or full year results at this time. The Company will continue to communicate with the financial markets, and with all of its other stakeholders as the short and medium term implications of the evolving business environment for the Company’s operations and performance become clearer.”
CNH reported that during the first quarter of 2020, the continued spread of the COVID-19 pandemic started to impact CNH Industrial’s end-markets and operations. Worldwide agriculture industry demand was down during the first quarter of 2020, with global demand for tractors down 15% and combines down 11%. The demand slowdown for tractors in the month of March alone was some 36%. In North America, tractor demand was down 9% in the quarter, primarily in the lower horsepower segment (under 140 HP), while combines were down 22%. In Europe, tractor and combine markets were down 10% and 20%, respectively, with tractors down 24% in the month of March alone. South America tractor and combine markets decreased 6% and 30%, respectively. In Rest of World, demand decreased 17% for tractors and 2% for combines, with the tractor market slowdown of 43% in the month of March alone
