CATERPILLAR Inc (CAT.N) slashed its 2015 revenue forecast on Thursday and said it will cut as many as 10,000 jobs through 2018, joining a list of big US industrial companies grappling with the mining and energy downturn.
Shares of Caterpillar tumbled as much as 8 per cent to a five-year low, pulling down the sector and knocking as much as 37 points off the Dow Jones industrial average.
Over the past year, miners and energy companies have chopped budgets and put expansion projects on hold as prices of raw materials such as crude oil, copper, coal and iron ore have plunged to six-year lows amid lingering worries about oversupplies and China’s slowing economic growth. As a result, orders for equipment have dried up.
Peoria, Illinois-based Caterpillar, the world’s biggest construction and mining equipment maker, has also been hit by a slowdown in industrial activity in China.
S&P Capital IQ analyst Jim Corridore termed the restructuring “a strong reaction” to market conditions.
“The company has shown a lack of revenue growth in the last few years (and) earnings are in a decline,” he said. “That definitely puts pressure on the CEO to find a way to react to the environment, which at this time shows no near-term catalyst for improvement.”
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