Machinery giant Caterpillar’s sales to Europe, the Middle East and Africa rose by 31% to $2.6 billion in the third quarter.
Caterpillar’s profits almost doubled to US$792 million for the third quarter of 2010, while revenues were up 53% to $11.1 billion.
While the MENA region showed a surge in sales, the company posted strong sales across the board. The strong performance in the third quarter was helped by a doubling of sales in Latin America to $1.76 billion and leaps of over 50% in North America (up by 55% to $4.3 billion) and Asia Pacific (up by 51% to $2.25 billion).
Digging deeper into the figures, machinery sales were up 84% to $7.2 billion, engine sales rose by 21% to $3.2 billion and financial products decreased by 5% to $682 million.
The results may have benefitted from comping against dire market conditions a year ago, but Cat is predicting the market will grow ahead of its own forecasts, and its sales outlook for the year has been adjusted from the $39-$42 billion range up to $41-$42 billion. Furthermore, sales in 2011 are expected to approach $50 billion with growth boosted by emerging and developing economies.
“Third quarter results demonstrate our focus on aggressively managing costs and improving cash flow, while continuing to ramp up production to meet customer demand. Continuing economic growth in the developing world has been key to improving sales. In addition, sales in developed countries have improved substantially after deep declines in 2009,” said Caterpillar’s CEO, Doug Oberhelman.
“While demand has increased, dealer new machine inventories and rental fleets have remained relatively flat, and the age of rental fleets hasn’t improved, and that should be positive for us as we move forward.”
