Growth in mining, strong replacement demand for products in the United States and a continued focus on cost management helped Caterpillar Inc. deliver record quarterly profits of$1.6 billion, or $2.37 per share in the first quarter, up from $1.2 billion, or $1.84 per share, in the same period a year ago.
The Peoria, Ill.-based company moved its mining equipment world headquarters to Oak Creek with the acquisition of Bucyrus International Inc. last year.
The company reported quarterly sales and revenues of $16.0 billion, up 23 percent from $12.9 billion a year ago.
“These outstanding results demonstrate our continued focus on execution and controlling costs as we increase production and expand capacity to meet increasing demand from our customers. We’re seeing strong global demand for most mining products and significant growth in replacement demand for products in the United States, which more than offset slowing in China and Brazil,” said Caterpillar chairman and chief executive officer Doug Oberhelman. “During the quarter, I visited Caterpillar facilities, customers, suppliers and dealers around the world, and saw firsthand the progress we are making on safety, product quality, improved delivery times, factory efficiencies and customer service. These improvements have been impressive considering they’ve occurred while we have so much going on–we are building new facilities, expanding existing facilities, integrating acquisitions and continuing the introduction of new products. Our growth has also been good for jobs–increasing demand coupled with our acquisitions has led to a nearly 50-percent increase in our global workforce since the start of 2010, to a total of 155,710 people. Even without acquisitions, in the last year alone, our workforce in the United States has grown by more than 6,500 people while our workforce is up about 7,200 outside of the United States.”
Caterpillar has increased its profit outlook for 2012 while maintaining the sales and revenues outlook in the range of $68 billion to $72 billion.
“We remain on track for another record-breaking year in 2012 at a time when U.S. construction activity remains depressed and economies in Europe, China and Brazil have slowed. While our outlook reflects a record year, we are highly focused on preparing for additional growth over the next few years,” Oberhelman said.
Bucyrus sales were $1.0 billion in the first quarter.
