Bob Tita

Caterpillar shares are pulling back after soft first-quarter sales and a tepid forecast for sales growth in 2024. Caterpillar’s quarterly profit topped expectations, though, aided by $575 million from price increases that offset lower sales volumes. Caterpillar described inventories at dealers as a headwind for sales growth in 2024.

CNH Industrial is joining competitor Deere in a space race for farmers. CNH said Monday it will offer mobile internet services to its farm equipment customers, enabling access to the company’s digital farming services through satellite operator Intelsat. Farm equipment manufacturers have been rolling out digital services in recent years to make tractors, seed planters, crop sprayers and other equipment more efficient and productive through precision programming and data collection.

Expansion of data centers fuels demand for generators and battery backups: “You cannot have downtime.”

U.S. Steel sought to quash the notion that Nippon Steel is trying to unwind the companies’ $14 billion deal, saying that rival Cleveland-Cliffs is spreading false rumors among investors. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” U.S. Steel’s board of directors said in a Tuesday letter to investors and employees. “Both Nippon Steel and U. S. Steel remain as fully committed as ever to completing the transaction.”

Steelmakers Nucor and Cleveland-Cliffs said Tuesday that steel from Mexico is eluding U.S. trade laws and holding down domestic steel prices. The Biden administration earlier this month said it will levy a 25% duty on imported goods from Mexico that include steel from China. U.S. steelmakers and other manufacturers have complained that China is circumventing existing U.S. tariffs by routing the metal through Mexico, which is allowed to send products into the U.S. without tariffs under a trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

Companies are laying off employees and cutting production to counter falling orders and rising inventories.

Companies are laying off employees and cutting production to counter falling orders and rising inventories.

Higher prices and lower costs for manufacturing helped Caterpillar navigate falling sales of construction and mining equipment last quarter. The maker of bulldozers, excavators and giant dump trucks now expects sales for 2024 to be slightly lower than in 2023, after previously guiding to flat sales. Caterpillar expects dealers to end 2024 with slightly lower inventories compared with last year.

Vice president and President Biden visit company’s hometown of Pittsburgh for Labor Day, as Nippon Steel works to shore up deal support.

U.S. Steel chief executive said the company would close steel mills if its planned sale to Nippon Steel collapses, as the Biden administration is moving closer to blocking the deal. CEO David Burritt said the nearly $3 billion that Japan-based Nippon Steel has pledged to invest in the Pittsburgh company’s older mills is critical to keeping them competitive and maintaining workers’ jobs. “We wouldn’t do that if the deal falls through,” Burritt said in an interview.