Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Andrew Bonfield: Yeah. So we actually had a reduction in dealer inventory in Asia-Pac this year in CI versus a build in the previous year.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Timothy Thein with Citi.

Timothy Thein: Jim, maybe just a follow-up on the just mining outlook within RI, the point about the miners being capital disciplined, which has been in place for some time, but just on the back of what appears to be strong results and outlook from a competitor in Asia overnight, maybe just say a bit more about kind of the outlook and your views on the mining piece of RI for 2023.

James Umpleby III: We’ve been talking for a number of years in our earnings call about what we expect in the mining industry, which was moderate growth year-on-year. And as opposed to what we saw going back, thinking about 10 or 12 or 15 years ago, where we saw some wild cycles up and down, and really I believe that’s a function of our mining customers remaining capital disciplined. And that’s a very positive thing, I think, for them and for us, and what we’ve been saying for a number of years now in our earnings calls, that we expect a year-over-year moderate increase. And that’s exactly the way it’s playing out. So we’re very encouraged by our quotation activity with customers, the conversations that are going on. We have a strong backlog, which we feel good about.

Parked trucks remained at low levels. There’s high utilization of equipment. And customers make decisions on a whole variety of factors as to whether or not they’re going to rebuild or they’re going to buy new trucks and we benefit from either one of those things. We’re very encouraged by our autonomous solution. And we firmly believe we have the best solution in the industry. And that’s been demonstrated by the decision, the purchasing decisions that our customers are making. And as a reminder, of course, RI also includes quarry and ag, which trends there are positive as well. A lot of that’s driven by infrastructure spending and anticipated infrastructure spending. So, again, we feel good about the mining business. Again, quotation activity is very strong and we’re having very good conversations with customers.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Matthew Elkott with Cowen.

Matthew Elkott: I was hoping you guys can provide us with some more insight into the strength you’re seeing in the Middle East. And related to that, but longer term, Saudi Arabia has big plans in both construction and, more recently, mining. Are there any meaningful incremental opportunities for you guys there?

James Umpleby III: I believe we mentioned in our prepared remarks that EAME, which is Europe, Africa and the Middle East, is expected to be about flat. And we said that strength in the Middle East is offsetting some uncertainty in Europe. So, certainly, when oil prices are elevated, that tends to provide the investment capabilities for customers in the Middle East, it’s for oil and gas business or for construction. So, again, it is certainly a bright spot and a positive one and one that we feel will continue through 2023.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Steven Fisher with UBS.

Steven Fisher: Just curious what was different about the supply chain in construction, which sounded like it’s pretty smooth versus E&T and Resource, which sounded like were still a little challenging? Is it just still the randomness that’s out there? And then last quarter, you talked about some of the manufacturing inefficiencies due to supply chain? Just curious how that played out in Q4 and what you expect for that in 2023?