Outlook turns upbeat for heavy equipment makers

Oct 29, 2010 | 12:20 PM |

Demand for and investment in heavy equipment manufacturing will finish 2010 strong and continue to improve over the next couple of years, according to executives participating in quarterly conference calls over the past week.

Bucyrus International Inc., a Milwaukee-based manufacturer of mining equipment such as trucks, shovels, excavators, draglines and drills, boosted its capital expenditures by nearly 29 percent this year vs. 2009. Sales through September rose 20 percent compared with the same period last year, and order backlogs have increased 35 percent since the end of last year, with new orders in the third quarter alone jumping 63 percent from a year earlier.

"Our backlog increase is a good indication of strong shipments to follow," Bucyrus president and chief executive officer Tim Sullivan said. "Quoting activity remains high. Primarily that's the phenomena of the large mining companies. Sullivan said emerging markets remain strong, but China will see corrections "and some clean-off period" following "hyper" growth activity.....