North America drives Q1 rise for Caterpillar

Sales increased strongly in North America for Caterpillar

Caterpillar has announced first-quarter 2023 sales and revenues of US$6.7 billion for its construction industries section, an increase of US$631 million, or 10%, compared with US$6.115 billion in the first quarter of 2022.

The North America region drove a lot of this growth, with sales increasing by 33% from the first quarter of 2022 to US$3.6 billion.

Another region that saw growth was EAME (Europe, Middle East and Africa) albeit with a much smaller increase of 5%, taking sales in the region to US$1.3 billion.

Sales dropped in Asia Pacific by 21% to US$1.1 billion with Caterpillar putting this down to “lower sales volume and unfavorable currency impacts, primarily related to the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan.” Cat said that in addition to lower sales to end users, dealers inventories in the region increased less than in the same quarter in 2022.

Latin America also saw sales drop, by 4% to US$599 million.

Construction Industries’ profit was US$1.790 billion in the first quarter of 2023, an increase of US$733 million, or 69%, compared with US$1.057 billion in the first quarter of 2022.

“I’d like to thank our global team for their strong operational performance while serving healthy demand during the first quarter. We achieved double-digit top-line growth and record adjusted profit per share while generating strong ME&T free cash flow,” said Jim Umpleby, Chairman and CEO.

Caterpillar’s Resource Industries’ total sales (which includes mining equipment) were US$3.427 billion in the first quarter of 2023, an increase of $597 million, or 21%, compared with US$2.830 billion in the first quarter of 2022.

All regions reported a growth in sales for this segment: North America by 28%, Latin America was up 19%, EAMA by 1% and Asia Pacific saw a 31% increase.

The May-June issue of International Construction will include the Yellow Table, a ranking of the world’s biggest construction OEMs by sales. Previous editions of the Yellow Table can be viewed online.