With revenues of $60 billion last year following a huge merger with Bucyrus, US earthmoving equipment manufacturer, Caterpillar Inc, saw a 83% increase in profits to almost $5 billion, up 83% from last year. According to its annual report, the company is also bullish about the immediate future:
“We expect mining to continue to be strong globally, and we have a sizable order backlog for mining equipment. We expect sales to increase in 2012 and are in the process of adding production capacity for many of our mining products. However, we expect sales to be constrained by capacity throughout 2012 ...
“We expect improving world economic growth to increase demand for commodities. Our outlook assumes most commodity prices will increase slightly in 2012 and continue at levels that encourage investment ...
“We expect economic growth in Asia/Pacific will exceed 6.5 percent in 2012, about the same as in 2011. Growth should improve in Australia and Indonesia, the result of recent interest rate cuts ..
"For 2012, we are expecting economic growth in China of about 8.5 percent. We have seen the Chinese government begin to ease lending policies and expect that will continue in 2012 ..."
“We expect mining to continue to be strong globally, and we have a sizable order backlog for mining equipment. We expect sales to increase in 2012 and are in the process of adding production capacity for many of our mining products. However, we expect sales to be constrained by capacity throughout 2012 ...
“We expect improving world economic growth to increase demand for commodities. Our outlook assumes most commodity prices will increase slightly in 2012 and continue at levels that encourage investment ...
“We expect economic growth in Asia/Pacific will exceed 6.5 percent in 2012, about the same as in 2011. Growth should improve in Australia and Indonesia, the result of recent interest rate cuts ..
"For 2012, we are expecting economic growth in China of about 8.5 percent. We have seen the Chinese government begin to ease lending policies and expect that will continue in 2012 ..."