Oshkosh Corporation experienced a fiscal third quarter loss of $26.6 million, compared with the year-ago loss of $84.3 million, as a result of weak demand
. The company's net sales for the quarter came in at $1.2 billion, versus $1.9 billion during the fiscal third quarter of 2008.

"Our defense and fire & emergency segments delivered strong results for the quarter, while our access equipment and commercial segments continued to experience extraordinarily weak demand as construction activity in most areas of the world remains soft," said Robert Bohn, Oshkosh Corporation chairman and CEO.

The company reported a loss from continuing operations of $22 million, or 30 cents a share, a dramatic drop from the year-ago period's income from continuing operations of $102 million.

On the last day of the quarter, Oshkosh won the U.S. Department of Defense's bid to supply its MRAP All Terrain Vehicles for troops in Afghanistan. The company will initially provide 2,244 M-ATVs worth $1.05 billion.

"We understand our responsibility to our armed forces and the U.S. taxpayer, and we will deliver," Bohn said. "To accomplish this effort, we have hired new employees in Wisconsin and called back laid-off employees in Pennsylvania to build the M-ATVs."

Within Oshkosh's commercial segment, sales fell 43.6 percent to $138.4 million in the fiscal third quarter, compared with the prior year period. The company attributes the sale decrease to a 75 percent decline in sales of concrete placement products as a result of lower construction activity in North America and a 20 percent decrease in refuse collection vehicle sales.

"For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009, we expect solid performance from our defense and fire & emergency segments, while we expect that our access equipment and commercial segments will both continue to face tough market conditions," Bohn said. "We expect the M-ATV contract will primarily benefit our sales and earnings in fiscal 2010."