Caterpillar Is Cutting Costs & Relying On Construction & Energy Businesses To Combat Mining Weakness

For over an year now Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) has battled weak demand for machinery and equipment from the global mining sector. With mining companies cutting their costs and capital spending in an attempt to boost their profits and cash flows, sales of mining equipment manufactured by CAT have tanked. Last year, the company?s mining segment sales contracted by over 37% annually and in the recently concluded March quarter, they fell by over 33% annually.