Suffering from a slow down in The US, not the case in Africa for the heavy machinery business!

What crisis? Even if they suffer from a slowdown in activity in the United States and fear in Europe, manufacturers of construction equipment and mining equipment can rely on emerging markets to maintain growth. Caterpillar, the world leader with sales decreasing to $32 billion dollars from of over $45 billion due to difficulties in the construction sector. However, other regions (Europe, Africa and Middle East are combined in one) show growth, Asia saw its sales increase by over 40%. Same observation for its Japanese rival Komatsu: if China is driving growth (+ 62.3%), the Africa and Middle East is second, up 42.6%. The 3 largest distributor of heavy machinery (Babckock, JADelmas, and Tractafric Equipment) in Africa, are dominating he African market with sales close to a billion dollars in 2009.

The acquisition of Bucyrus is based on Caterpillar's key strategic imperative to expand its leadership in the mining equipment industry, and positions Caterpillar to capitalise on the robust long-term outlook for commodities driven by the trend of rapid growth in emerging markets which are improving infrastructure, rapidly developing urban areas and industrialising their economies.