European sales for the fourth quarter 2023 decreased by 4%, compared to the corresponding period in fiscal 2022, and included a favorable currency impact of 6%, when translating foreign sales to U.S. dollars for financial reporting purposes. The decrease was primarily due to decreased shipments of higher-performance Hurco VMX machines in Germany, France, and Italy, partially offset by increased sales of electro-mechanical components and accessories manufactured by our wholly owned subsidiary, LCM Precision Technology S.r.l. (“LCM”), and increased shipments of Hurco machines in the United Kingdom. European sales for fiscal year 2023 decreased by 4%, compared to fiscal year 2022, and included an unfavorable currency impact of 1%, when translating foreign sales to U.S. dollars for financial reporting purposes. The year-over-year decrease in European sales for the fiscal year was primarily attributable to a decreased volume of shipments of Hurco machines in Germany, France, and Italy, partially offset by increased sales of electro-mechanical components and accessories manufactured by LCM and increased shipments of Hurco machines in the United Kingdom and Milltronics machines throughout Europe where our customers are located.
Sales in the Asia-Pacific region for the fourth quarter of FY2023 increased by 1% compared to the same period in FY2022 and come with an unfavorable currency effect of 3% when translating foreign sales into U. S. dollars for currency purposes. Reporting purposes. The increase was primarily due to higher shipments of Hurco and Takumi machines in India, partially offset by reduced sales of Hurco machines in China and Southeast Asia. Sales in the Asia-Pacific region for FY 2023 were minimized by 34% compared to FY2022 and comes with an unfavorable currency effect of 4%, when translating foreign sales into U. S. dollars for financial reporting purposes. The year-over-year reduction in sales in the Asia-Pacific region for the fiscal year was primarily due to a relief in the volume of shipments of Takumi machines in China and Hurco machines in Southeast Asia, China and India, partially offset by an increase in the volume of shipments of Takumi machines in India.
Orders for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023 were $54,141,000, a decrease of $4,195,000, or 7%, compared to the corresponding period in fiscal 2022, and included a favorable currency impact of $2,034,000, or 3%, when translating foreign orders to U.S. dollars. Orders for fiscal year 2023 were $209,676,000, a decrease of $31,255,000, or 13%, compared to fiscal 2022, and included an unfavorable currency impact of $1,990,000, or less than 1%, when translating foreign orders to U.S. dollars.
The following table presents the new orders recorded by geographic region for the fourth quarter and year ended October 31, 2023 and 2022 (in thousands of dollars):
European orders for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023 were down 1% compared to the same period last year and boast a favorable currency effect of 8%, when translating foreign orders into U. S. dollars. due to minimized visitor demand for Hurco machines in Germany and the UK, partially offset by increased visitor demand for Hurco machines in Italy and France, as well as higher orders for electromechanical parts and accessories manufactured through LCM. European orders for FY2023 were down by 6% compared to FY2022 and come with an unfavorable currency effect of 1%, when converting foreign orders to U. S. dollars. The year-on-year decline in European demands was basically due to reduced demands. for Hurco machines in Germany and France, partially offset by increased visitor demand for Hurco machines in the UK and Italy, as well as for electromechanical parts and accessories manufactured through LCM.
Asia-Pacific orders for the fourth quarter and full-year 2023 decreased 56% and 45%, respectively, compared to the same periods last year, and included an unfavorable currency effect of 1% and 3%, respectively, when converting foreign orders to U. S. dollars. Declines in orders in Asia Pacific in both year-over-year periods were primarily due to lower visitor demand for Hurco and Takumi machines in China and Hurco machines in Southeast Asia and India, partially offset by higher full-year 2023 demand. for Takumi machines. Machines in India.
Gross profit for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023 was $17,419,000, or 26% of sales, compared to $17,570,000, or 28% of sales, for the same time last year. Gross profit for fiscal year 2023 was $56,168,000, or 25% of sales. compared to $64,478,000, or 26% of sales, for fiscal year 2022. Year-over-year declines in gross margin and gross margin as a percentage of sales at either time point were primarily due to declining sales volume of our higher-performing VMX machines. and the negative effect of constant prices on declining sales and production volumes.
Selling, general and administrative expenses for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2023 amounted to $14,040,000, or 21% of sales, compared to $14,872,000, or 23% of sales, for the corresponding era of fiscal 2022, and included an unfavorable exchange rate. effect of $316,000, when converting foreign expenditures to U. S. dollars for monetary reporting purposes. Selling, general and administrative expenses for fiscal year 2023 were $49,552,000, or 22% of sales, compared to $51,731,000, or 21% of sales, in fiscal 2022. and included a favorable foreign exchange effect of $423,000, when converting foreign expenditures into U. S. dollars, for financial reporting purposes. Year-over-year declines in absolute dollar SG&A expenses at any time were primarily due to lower prices similar to industry display expenses, sales commissions, and worker support pricing for our global operations.
Cash and cash equivalents amounted to $41,784,000 as of October 31, 2023, compared to $63,922,000 as of October 31, 2022. Working capital amounted to $193,257,000 as of October 31, 2023, compared to $194,733,000 as of October 31, 2022. The fall in current capital is mainly due to a reduction in cash and cash equivalents, largely offset by a reduction in accounts payable and visitor deposits and an increase in stock and debtors.
Hurco Companies, Inc. is an international, industrial technology company that sells its three brands of computer numeric control (“CNC”) machine tools to the worldwide metal cutting and metal forming industry. Two of the Company’s brands of machine tools, Hurco and Milltronics, are equipped with interactive controls that include software that is proprietary to each respective brand. The Company designs these controls and develops the software. The third brand of CNC machine tools, Takumi, is equipped with industrial controls that are produced by third parties, which allows the customer to decide the type of control added to the Takumi CNC machine tool. The Company also produces high-value machine tool components and accessories and provides automation solutions that can be integrated with any machine tool. The end markets for the Company’s products are independent job shops, short-run manufacturing operations within large corporations, and manufacturers with production-oriented operations. The Company’s customers manufacture precision parts, tools, dies, and/or molds for industries such as aerospace, defense, medical equipment, energy, transportation, and computer equipment. The Company is based in Indianapolis, Indiana, with manufacturing operations in Taiwan, Italy, the U.S., and China, and sells its products through direct and indirect sales forces throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The Company has sales, application engineering support and service subsidiaries in China, the Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, the U.S., and Taiwan. Web Site: www.hurco.com
Certain statements contained in this press release are forward-looking statements that involve known and unknown hazards, doubts and other points that could possibly cause our actual results, functionality or achievements to be materially different from any expressed or implied long-term results, functionality or achievements. . . through these forward-looking statements. These points include, among others, the cyclical nature of the tool-device industry; questionable economic conditions, which may also harm overall demand, in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific markets; dangers of our foreign operations; government actions, projects and regulations, adding restrictions on imports and exports, customs duties and adjustments to tax laws; the effects of adjustments in exchange rates; festival with larger corporations that have greater monetary resources; our dependence on new product development; the desire and/or ability to protect our intellectual heritage resources; the limited number of our production sources and supply chain; rising raw material prices, particularly iron and metal products; the effect of the loss of senior control and key personnel; our ability to integrate acquisitions; acquisitions that may also disrupt our operations and have effects on operating results; failure to comply with security and knowledge privacy regulations; violations of our network and system security measures; the possible obsolescence of our generation and the need for technological advancement; deterioration of our assets; adverse or incidental tax consequences; doubts related to our ability to utilize unamortized tax losses; evolution of the SOFR rate; the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and other public health epidemics and pandemics on the global economy, our businesses and operations, our workers and the businesses, operations and economies of our consumers and suppliers; and other dangers and concerns discussed more fully under the heading “Risk Factors” in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We expressly disclaim any legal responsibility to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, long-term developments or otherwise.