Christopher A. Coughlin
Analyst · Longbow Securities
Yes. So Eli, this is Chris. Let me start with Mobile. Revenue was obviously down relative to the huge first quarter we had last year. But it was actually up 10% from the preceding fourth quarter. Of the decrease year-on-year, 50% of that was exited business and volume was the other 50%, rounding numbers a little bit. Moving forward on Mobile, we expect it to be relatively stable relative to first quarter performance and we expect margin performance to stay very consistent with what you saw in the first quarter. The Process area, obviously, was a disappointment for us in the first quarter. We saw significant volume decreases beyond what we would have expected across all geographies and basically all market segments. And a couple of things about it. First of all, I think you see the impact of our business relative to the energy, mining and infrastructure industries, which have a number of challenges as you go around the world. So that's one point on that. The second thing is, in the first quarter, was the first time we saw inventory de-stocking in the distribution channels that was significant. Let's use that term. So we certainly saw some of that going on as well. And then the last point, there's no question that we did not get enough cost out relative to the volumes that we were operating at. And in hindsight, we were structured for a market recovery that did not occur, obviously, based on the revenue. And that certainly put a lot of pressure on our cost structures and our margins. So I think, moving forward on Process, a couple of things, we expect the situation to improve as we move through the year, but the second quarter will still not be back maybe to the levels that we would like. But we expect to see an improvement in the second quarter over the first quarter, and improvement going on throughout the year. On the original equipment side of Process, where we sort of have longer lead times because a lot of that is capital equipment, we clearly have a second half that's stronger than the first half. So we clearly see that in our order books. So that's somewhat encouraging for us. And then margin performance, we expect it to continue to improve through the balance of the year. Now where we will shake out on that for the total year is going to be heavily dependent on your second half assumptions around distribution. We clearly are expecting to see a recovery continuing through the year, but I think, as you know, that is a short lead time business. You don't have visibility around what the second half is going to look like. So you have to use your own kind of market assumptions on that.