Overall sales of $US675 million were achieved with net earnings of $92 million and EBITDA of $152 million.

Sales for underground mining original equipment during the quarter were up 16% year-on-year to $215.7 million thanks to an increase across all product lines.

An increase in underground mining aftermarket parts and service sales of 19.8% to $147 million was primarily due to increased longwall replacement projects in the US and increased sales in the Czech Republic, but offset by a decline in South Africa due to a large longwall extension in 2008.

Sales were also boosted by the Australian market as producers placed large rebuild orders to extend the life of their existing Bucyrus equipment.

Underground mining sales were hit by $11.6 million ($65.9 million for the nine months to September 30) due to the effect of the stronger US dollar on foreign currency sales.

While underground sales were buoyed, surface original equipment sales suffered, down 23% due to decreased electric mining shovel sales.

This was partially offset by completion revenue from manufacture and assembly of walking draglines in Australia and Canada.

New orders were down significantly across both the OEM’s underground and surface segments.

New underground original equipment orders for the September quarter were down 55% to $207 million and aftermarket was down 16.5% to $126 million.

Bucyrus attributed the drop to larger new longwall orders from the US, Germany and China last year and reduced orders this year due to the economic conditions.

In the pipeline, Bucyrus has a backlog of $1.93 billion, including $1.3 billion in the next 12 months. The figure is down 23.9% on September 2008.

The underground segment backlog is $809 million, including $571 million for the next 12 months.

Bucyrus spent $34.5 million, including $9.6 million on expansion of its South Milwaukee premises, during the quarter. The OEM expects to spend $55 million in 2009.