Caterpillar’s North American dealers reported that retail sales were up 14 percent in December, compared with a three-month rolling period during the same period in 2017.
North American dealer results lagged only the retail statistics reported in Cat’s Latin American region, which posted 51 percent growth in December in its Resources division (large mining, quarry, waste and material handling equipment) sector.
Globally, Cat dealer sales were up 10 percent compared with the same period in 2017.
Reviewing Cat’s Construction Industries results, North American dealers were up 9 percent in December, the first single digit growth number in all of 2018, which reached heights of 30 percent growth in August, compared with the previous year.
The Construction Industries segments includes equipment used in heavy and general construction, rental, quarry and aggregates and mining.
Throughout the world, the company’s construction industries segment is showing continuing signs of slowing down, dropping from a 30 percent high in January, 2018 to a 6 percent growth in December.
According to Cat, this retail sales summary is primarily based on unaudited reports that are voluntarily provided to Cat by its independent dealers. These dealers are not subject to Cat’s internal financial reporting processes.
Because of this, Cat cautions, “the information presented in this report is intended solely to convey an approximate indication of the trends, direction and magnitude of retail sales and is not intended to be an estimate, approximation or prediction of, or substitute for, Caterpillar’s audited financial statements.”
