– What On Earth Is Going On With Caterpillar Sales?:
We have been covering the ongoing collapse in global manufacturing as tracked by Caterpillar retail sales for so long that there is nothing much to add.
Below we show the latest monthly data from CAT which is once again in negative territory across the board, but more importantly, the global headline retail drop (down another 11% in August) has been contracting for 33 consecutive months! This is not a recession; in fact the nearly 3 year constant contraction – the longest negative stretch in company history – is beyond what most economists would deem a depression.
Perhaps CAT should come up with a new economic term to describe the true state of global manufacturing.
All Governments know they are a busted flush. They bluster nonsense.
But the truth is they have no more money.
They choose to look after their own pensions & savings rather than invest in real growth potential infrastructure projects. Perhaps it is understandable. I know not.
But logic dictates all capital equipment manufacturers worldwide must be suffering from a long term order-book shortfall.
It’s cloth cutting time again, and our only hope is that they keep the fully skilled employed.
In UK, the witch allowed/encouraged manufacturing to die whilst Germany, France, Italy, The Netherlands and Finland all supported theirs during the eighties and nineties.
The result was UK lost all its “Journeymen” who would be able to teach the next generation batch of apprentices. They run Museums now! Hey Ho!