We invested $15 million in our tower crane rental fleet in Europe, which helped us increase our market share in Germany and win some strategic orders with key accounts.
The team doubled our hazard observations that we call SLAMS, and our recordable injury rate, excluding acquisitions, was 1.39 for the year.
After investing $40 million in capex and $186 million on two acquisitions, we closed the year with $75 million of cash on hand and $250 million of liquidity.
Through ingenuity, the team built a robotic [Inaudible] for less than $10,000 to buy the same machine when it costs 10 times as much, and it would not have been specifically designed for the job at hand.
Orders for the quarter totaled $615 million and our backlog ended the year just over $1 billion, our highest level in over 10 years.
On the back of third soft third quarter shipments during October and November, periods were $75 million lower than our internal forecasts.
In fact, we cut back over $25 million of shipments during December, which was nothing short of the heroic effort by our operations team.
This, combined with tighter cost management and payroll mix, helped us deliver a healthy EBITDA of $34 million in the fourth quarter.
Our fourth quarter orders totaled $650 million of the book-to-bill of 1.24 and an increase of 21%, compared to $509 million of orders last year.
Orders were unfavorably impacted by approximately $13 million from changes in foreign currency exchange rates.
Our 2021 ending backlog of $1 billion was up 86% over the prior year and is at its highest level in over 10 years.
Backlog was unfavorably impacted by approximately $40 million from changes in foreign currency exchange rates.
Net sales in the fourth quarter of $498 million increased $68 million, or 16% from a year ago.
The incremental net sales from acquisitions in the quarter were $24 million, slightly below the $30 million we communicated in the prior quarter.
Net sales were unfavorably impacted by approximately $9 million from changes in foreign currency exchange rates.
SG&A costs are up $24 million.
Our acquisitions increased SG&A costs by $8 million in the quarter and the remainder of the increases were primarily inflation-related.
Our adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter was $34 million flat year over year.
The acquisitions accounted for approximately $3 million during the quarter, which was in line with our expectations.
We expect the impact of the elimination of intercompany profits to be nominal going forward and target approximately $30 million on an annual basis from the acquisitions.
As a percentage of sales, the adjusted EBITDA margin decreased to 6.9%, a reduction of 100 basis points over the prior year.
Income tax expenses in the quarter were $1.2 million, this was primarily driven by the jurisdictional mix of earnings, partially offset by a one-time tax benefit.
Our GAAP diluted loss per share in the quarter was $0.10 a decline of $0.15 over the prior year.
On an adjusted basis, diluted earnings per share increased $0.8 from the prior year to $0.27 per diluted share, primarily driven by lower income tax expense in the quarter.
Orders total roughly $2.2 billion, up to $655 billion dollars, or 43% from the prior year.
Foreign currency exchange rates impacted 2021 orders favorably by approximately $32 million.
Net sales for the year totaled approximately $1.7 billion.
A 19% increase from 2020 and were positively impacted by $31 million due to favorable changes in foreign currency exchange rates.
Our adjusted EBITDA improved by $33 million, or 40% from the prior year.
Moreover, our adjusted EBITDA margins improved by 90 basis points to 6.7%.
Our full-year 2021 adjusted net income was $31 million compared to a net loss of $12 million in 2020.
We generated $76 million of cash flows from operating activities in the year, an increase of $111 million year over year.
We spent $40 million in capital expenditures, which resulted in $36 million of free cash flows and an improvement of $97 million year over year and ahead of our expectations.
We ended the year with a cash balance of $75 million, a decline of approximately $64 million year over year.
As a reminder, we paid $186 million for the acquisitions using available cash, along with borrowing $100 million from our ABL credit facility.
Our total liquidity on December 31, 2021, remained strong at $254 million.
As most of you know, our current notes are callable on or after April 1, 2022, at a price of 104.5%.
Net sales are approximately $2 billion to $2.2 billion.
With regard to SG&A, it is important to note that our adjusted SG&A expenses for the year are expected to increase approximately 21% of which approximately $32 million is from acquisitions.
Our adjusted EBITDA guidance is approximately $130 million to $160 million.
Depreciation and amortization of approximately $65 million.
Interest expense is approximately $28 million to $30 million.
Provision for income tax expense approximately $13 million to $17 million.
Adjusted diluted earnings per share approximately $0.65 to $1.35.
And capital expenditures of approximately $85 million.
We expect this to be approximately $35 million in 2022.
This capex investment will approximate $25 million in 2022.
The remaining $25 million of capex will be for a normal factory capex.
Adding a little more clarity and focus to our strategy, I am pleased to announce our vision for aftermarket, which we call Cranes Plus 50.
Our goal is to increase our aftermarket or non-new machine sales by 50% over the next five years.
As a jumping-off point, we ended 2021 with $449 million in non-new machine sales, which will be outlined in our 10-K filing.
We are confident that our investment in our four growth initiatives will allow us to deliver on our Cranes Plus 50 strategies and increase our non-new machine sales by 50% over the next five years, which we believe will fuel greater long-term returns for our shareholders.

Summary:
Our GAAP diluted loss per share in the quarter was $0.10 a decline of $0.15 over the prior year.
On an adjusted basis, diluted earnings per share increased $0.8 from the prior year to $0.27 per diluted share, primarily driven by lower income tax expense in the quarter.
Net sales are approximately $2 billion to $2.2 billion.
Adjusted diluted earnings per share approximately $0.65 to $1.35.