CNH Industrial, the maker of New Holland and Case IH machinery, has reported a 6% decline in sales to $12.1bn for the first six months of the year as weak commodity prices continus to hurt machinery sales.

However, despite the dip in sales, CNH was able to improve operating margins in the first half of the year by 10 basis points to 5.9% thanks to a strong increase (+14%) in second-quarter operating profits from agricultural machinery sales.

CNH said its agricultural machinery division was profitable across all markets which is a sign that some stability has returned to markets after some difficult years for machinery manufacturers. Agricultural machinery accounts for more than half (54%) of CNH total operating profits and about 40% of all sales.

Overall, the group reported half-year operating profits of $720m, a 4% decline year-on-year. CNH’s net debt position increased almost $560m to $2.1bn