Caterpillar sales growth february 2012

Caterpillar sales growth february 2012 ; Caterpillar, the world’s biggest maker of earthmoving equipment by revenues, said growth in machine sales had slowed down in the past three months in almost every region of the world.

The report came amid renewed concerns about China’s economic growth fuelled by BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest mining company by market value, which warned of “flattening” iron ore demand from the Asian country.

Caterpillar said retail machine sales by dealers rose 21 per cent in the three months to the end of February compared with the same period last year. However, that was down from a pace of 30 per cent year-on-year growth in the last quarter of 2011.

In the Asia-Pacific region Caterpillar’s sales growth slowed to 20 per cent in the three months to the end of February, down from 31 per cent in the fourth quarter. In North America sales were up 39 per cent in the three months to the end of February compared with last year, down from 51 per cent growth in the fourth quarter.

Doug Oberhelman, Caterpillar chief executive, is visiting China, from where he told CNBC television that he remained confident about the market.

“We look at China as a long-term market here,” he said. “It’s the largest construction equipment market in the world today. We want to be here in a bigger way and of course we are investing a lot of time for what would be a 20 or 30-year run.”

In January Mr Oberhelman said he expected construction markets in the US and Europe to remain “depressed”, but he added on Tuesday that he was “pretty optimistic” about growth in eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Caterpillar shares closed down 2.6 per cent at $110.76 in New York.

Earlier, Ian Ashby, president of BHP Billiton’s iron ore unit, told an industry conference in Australia that he was expecting growth in Chinese demand for iron ore to slow down over the next decade, comments that prompted a sell-off in industrial sector shares.

Global iron ore consumption rose by 6.1 per cent a year between 2000 and 2010. However, BHP is forecasting demand will grow by an average of 3.5 per cent annually until 2020.

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