Profit for the third quarter was $1.14bn and sales reached a company record of $15.7bn.
Construction equipment sales grew strongly across all regions of the world and across all major products.
Chairman and CEO Doug Oberhelman said: “This was the best quarter for sales in our history, and our order backlog is at an all-time high. Excluding Bucyrus impacts [which added $1.1bn to sales] this was also our best profit quarter in history, and year-to-date operating profit as a percent of sales was higher than any full year in more than three decades.”
"Although there is a good deal of economic and political uncertainty in the world, we are not seeing it much in our business at this point. We believe continued economic recovery, albeit a slow recovery, is the most likely scenario as we move forward,” Oberhelman said. “2011 has been an outstanding year for Caterpillar, and we are on pace for all-time record sales and profit,” Oberhelman added.
“We’re having a great year in 2011, and 2012 is shaping up to be better.”
Total company sales and revenues are expected to be about $58 billion in 2011.
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