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Caterpillar’s second-quarter sales and revenues of $14.6 billion were down 16% on Q2 2012 and the July sales data forecasts a similar result for the third quarter.
The OEM giant has suffered sluggish sales over the past few months in all regions except Latin America, where demand soared since the beginning of the year.
Sales in the region were up 11% year on year in July.
Sales in Asia were hit by a decline in Chinese demand, dropping 28% last month.
Asian year-on-year sales posted a 14% drop in May and a 21% drop in June.
Declines widened for Caterpillar’s Europe, Africa and the Middle East segment, declining 2%, 4% and 12% in May, June and July respectively.
Global sales were down 9% in July, compared to the same time last year.
North American sales, which hit as high as a 16% drop over the last three months, were down only 1%.
Caterpillar also broke down its power systems sales by business sector, with an increase for all sectors except petroleum.
Total July sales by business sector matched July 2012 figures.
Analysts often deem Caterpillar as representative for the health of the global construction and industrial sectors and consider the sales statistics reflective of the current weak global economic market.
The company announced a Q2 profit of $960 million, down 43% from the same time last year and further cost-cutting measures may be on the way.
Cat expects the negative profit trend to continue, downgrading its profit expectations for the rest of 2013.
The company’s shares shed 2.43% to close the day at $83.44 after the announcement.
The bad news also led to the New York Stock Exchange taking a tumble.
Caterpillar chairman and CEO Doug Oberhelman said the company had taken action to “aggressively” lower costs and that end-user demand for Cat machines was outpacing the industry overall.
“Overall end-user demand is similar to our previous outlook but we now expect a more significant reduction in dealer machine inventory,” he said.
“That’s the main reason for the reduction in the sales and revenues outlook.”
Caterpillar blamed the global market for the considerable lay-offs it had made at its North American operations over the past few months.
