Machine sales drop as mines cut costs

Caterpillar’s retail machine sales steeply declined in Asia as miners continued to cut spending, the maker of construction equipment said yesterday. Sales in the Asia-Pacific region fell 30 percent in the three months to May compared with the same period a year earlier, the US-based company said. Caterpillar’s global sales fell 12 percent in the quarter. There was also bad news for construction machinery in Caterpillar’s latest sales report. Construction sales slowed in Latin America and were flat in North America. In Africa, Europe and the Middle East they fell at a slower pace. For Caterpillar’s resource industries segment, Asia-Pacific sales fell 69 percent and 47 percent in Africa, Europe and the Middle East in the most recent period. Sales fell 62 percent in Latin America and rose 7 percent in North America. – Bloomberg