When Caterpillar Inc.’s run of record sales and profits is over for the foreseeable future, you know the world’s economic condition is in bad shape. Contractors are hitting the auctions and used-equipment lots. For less-fortunate businesses, it’s liquidation time. Prices are plummeting, and producers are hunkering down.
Coast-to-coast, factory workers are feeling the chill just in time for the holidays. In North Dakota, Bobcat Co. is freezing production for six weeks at two plants until skid-steer sales thaw out again. In Kansas, CNH Global is sending workers home on an extended vacation at a plant in Wichita. In Peoria, Ill., Caterpillar reached the end of the third quarter riding high from record earnings but is now predicting next year to run “about flat” with full-year 2008 results, says Chairman and CEO Jim Owens.