Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.
While the relentless decline in Caterpillar retail sales has been duly noted here every month for nearly 4 years, now posting 44 consecutive declines, the latest, July data was downright depressionary.
According to the company, in the latest month – just when China was supposed to be rebounding and the US recovery getting "stronger" – demand took another sharp leg lower, as follows:
- North America machine sales down 20% after falling 12% in June
- Asia/Pacific sales July down 7% after falling 7% in June
- Latam sales July down 43% after falling 38%
- EAME (Europe, Africa, Middle East) sales July down 13% after falling 4%
This means that Caterpillar's rolling 3-month retail machine sales dropped by 19% in July vs the more modest 12% fall in June and May. It also means that, as shown in the chart below, in the past month CAT retail sales just posed the second largest monthly drop since the financial crisis.
And the breakdown by segment.
