Caterpillar’s four-percent increase in sales and revenues in the first quarter is a relief to many after ten periods of declines. Amy Campbell is the Director of Investor Relations. She says the arrow is going in the right direction, but it’s still too soon to count it as a turn around.
“We are at, still at pretty low levels for resource industries. They peaked at over 20-billion-dollars back in 2012 and we still only expect this to be less than 7-billion-dollars in sales this year.”
Campbell says the company’s resource industries are still well below peak and in fact even where they would expect normal demand.
Caterpillar’s Resource Industries includes Technology, Surface and Underground Mining and Material Handling. Caterpillar’s first quarter results were up four percent year to year. More mining movement in China and increased sales in Latin America helped underpin the sales and revenue growth. Profit per share excluding restructuring costs also doubled. Caterpillar’s CEO says significant cost reduction and restructuring actions have improved cash flow and further strengthened the company’s balance sheet.