Lower than expected earnings for CAT

Posted on October 22, 2015

By IRN/Dave Dahl

Even lowered expectations were too high for Caterpillar’s third quarter.

The Peoria-based company reported sales of about $11 billion and profit of $368 million. That compares with 2014’s third quarter of $13.5 billion and $1 billion, respectively.

There is some relatively good news: an early retirement program has given the company a jump start on the 10,000 jobs it plans to cut over the next three years.

The incentive “was only offered to US salaried management employees,” said company spokeswoman Rachel Potts. “We had about 2,100 people take that, and about half of those are right here in the Peoria area.”

The mining and oil-and-gas industries have suffered, creating a years-long drag on CAT’s numbers.

“The miners are doing what we’re looking to do right now,” Potts said. “Rein in costs. Get more efficient. Not replace equipment as much as they had in the past.”

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