Summary
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) filed an 8-K on May 20, 2015, providing supplemental information on its retail sales statistics for April 2015, compared to the prior year. This filing is intended to give investors a better understanding of business trends, especially given the lag between Caterpillar's sales to dealers and dealers' sales to end-users. The data indicates a broad decline in retail machine sales globally, down 11% for the rolling three-month period ended April 2015. Both Construction Industries and Resource Industries segments experienced significant downturns in retail sales, particularly in Asia/Pacific and Latin America. The Energy & Transportation segment also saw a notable decrease in overall retail sales, driven by weakness in Power Generation and Transportation sectors, though Oil & Gas showed slight improvement.
Key Highlights
- 1Global retail machine sales were down 11% for the three-month period ended April 2015, indicating a challenging market environment.
- 2Construction Industries retail sales declined by 12% globally, with significant weakness in Asia/Pacific (-32%) and Latin America (-48%).
- 3Resource Industries retail sales also contracted by 9% globally, despite a strong increase in Asia/Pacific (+67%), which was offset by declines in EAME (-34%) and Latin America (-39%).
- 4Energy & Transportation segment experienced an 8% decrease in total retail sales for the period, with Power Generation down 5% and Transportation down 24%.
- 5North America showed mixed retail sales trends; Construction Industries were up 3%, but Total Machines were down 11% for the rolling three-month period.
- 6The filing includes revised definitions for Resource Industries data starting January 2015, incorporating specific mining equipment previously excluded.
- 7The provided retail sales data is unaudited, based on voluntary dealer reports, and intended to indicate trends rather than provide precise financial estimates.