Summary
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) filed an 8-K on December 18, 2014, to provide supplemental information regarding its retail sales statistics for machines and power systems. This data, based on unaudited reports from independent dealers, offers insights into end-user demand across various geographic regions and industries. The report focuses on rolling three-month periods, highlighting trends and the direction of sales rather than providing precise financial forecasts. The primary focus of this disclosure is the performance of Caterpillar's key business segments. Investors can observe trends in the Resource Industries and Construction Industries by geographic region, and in the Energy & Transportation segment by major end-use. This information is intended to provide a better understanding of the company's business and the industries it serves, particularly given the time lag between Caterpillar's sales to dealers and dealers' subsequent sales to end users.
Key Highlights
- 1Caterpillar is providing supplemental, unaudited retail sales data for machines and power systems to end users and OEMs.
- 2The data offers insights into market trends and is based on voluntary reports from independent dealers.
- 3Retail sales of Total Machines globally showed a 10% decline for the three-month period ending November 2014 compared to the prior year.
- 4Geographically, North America was the only region showing positive growth in Total Machine retail sales, up 5% for the period.
- 5Resource Industries experienced a significant decline in retail machine sales globally (-23%), with particularly sharp drops in Asia/Pacific (-33%) and Latin America (-51%).
- 6Construction Industries also saw a global decline in retail machine sales (-6%), with notable weakness in Latin America (-31%), though North America showed positive growth (+8%).
- 7The Energy & Transportation segment reported robust growth in retail sales, up 11% globally for the period, driven strongly by the Transportation (+57%) and Oil & Gas (+9%) sectors.