Caterpillar's Global Growth Story

Caterpillaris an excellent example of how global growth is helping the bottom line of big corporations. Here's the story: global growth is NOT decelerating to any appreciable extent; in fact, it is strong and, in some cases, getting stronger.

Caterpillar now gets two-thirds of its sales outside the U.S.; they are maintaining 2008 guidance even though North America looks weak, because global sales are so strong.

Here's what happened in the last quarter:

North America up 3 percent
Europe/Australia/Middle East up 27 percent
Asia/Pacific up 35 percent
Latin America up 18 percent

More importantly, they have adjusted their regional revenue forecasts DOWN for North America but UP for everywhere else.

Asia/Pac sales up 15-20 percent from previous up 10-15 percent
Europe/Australia/Middle East up 7-12 percent from earlier up 5-10 percent
Latin Am. up 15-20 percent from up 10-15 percent
N. America down 2 percent to up 2 percent from previous flat to +5 percent

It's not all sunshine; rising raw material costs is a real problem for them. But the international sales are extremely encouraging.

Questions? Comments? [e-mail]