Caterpillar Inc.
Article by hi joiney
www cat com inc nyse cat is a united states based corporation headquartered in peoria illinois commonly referred to simply as cat is according to their corporate website the world s largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment diesel and natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines famous for their products featuring continuous tracks and a distinctive yellow paint scheme produces a wide range of heavy equipment including the range of bulldozers former presidents george w bush and bill clinton have visited the peoria area to see the company and president barack obama visited in february 2009 on a stopover on his way to lincoln celebrations in springfield is one of the thirty companies whose stock is tracked in the dow jones industrial average it is a fortune 500 company ranked number 50 in 2008 and first in its industry with more than 30 billion in assets contents 1 history 1 1 acquisitions 2 business lines 2 1 vehicles 2 2 engines 2 3 defence products 2 4 electronics 3 product distribution 4 management 4 1 current board of directors 5 employment 5 1 labor problems 6 notable achievements and controversies 6 1 excellent company designation 6 2 environmental impacts 6 3 israeli military sales and conversions 7 references in popular culture 8 see also 9 references 10 external links history two holt 45 gas crawler tractors team up to pull a long wagon train in the mojave desert during construction of the los angeles aqueduct in 1909 d2 on display in the serpentine vintage tractor museum serpentine western australia the story of inc originates in the late 19th century when daniel best and benjamin holt experimented with ways to fulfill the promise that steam tractors held for farming by 1904 these large steam powered tractors had been plowing california fields for 14 years and occasionally got bogged down in the soft soil especially after heavy rains once stuck in the mire they were difficult to pull free even with teams of horses their great weight typically rested on four metal wheels one solution employed to alleviate this problem was to lay a temporary plank road ahead of the steam tractor but this was time consuming expensive and interfered with earthmoving holt came up with the idea to carry the road with the vehicle on november 24 1904 he added wooden block linked treads around the idlers on holt no 77 his test tractor the results were impressive and the modern tractor was born became famous for its 30 and its 60 tractors in 1909 benjamin holt bought the abandoned but relatively new manufacturing plant of a tractor company that had failed in east peoria illinois the location offered holt everything he needed in a manufacturing center and despite the hefty amount of capital needed for retooling the plant the venture proved so profitable that by 1911 the factory employed 625 people around that time holt manufacturing began exporting its tractors to argentina mexico and canada in addition to their domestic sales the holt manufacturing company later pioneered the use of the continuous track during world war i their crawler tractors inspired the first military tanks which helped end world war i formed on april 15 1925 with the merger of holt manufacturing company of stockton california and the c l best gas traction company of san leandro california forming the tractor co sales the first year were us 13 million by 1929 sales climbed to 52 8 million and cat continued to grow throughout the great depression of the 1930s after the companies merged went through many changes including the adoption of the diesel engine during world war ii products found fame with the seabees construction battalions of the united states navy who built airfields and other facilities in the pacific theater of operations during the post war construction boom the company grew at a rapid pace and launched its first venture outside the u s in 1950 marking the beginning of s development into a multinational corporation acquisitions in addition to increasing sales of its core products much of s growth has been through acquisitions including company location date products notes trackson milwaki 1951 traxcavators tracked loaders and pipelayes traxcavator became a cat brand towmotor mentor oh 1965 forklifts later became mitsubishi forklifts 80 owned by mitsubishi solar turbines san diego ca 1981 natural gas turbines founded in 1927 as prudden san diego airplane company assets acquired from international harvester barber green minneapolis mn 1991 paving products renamed paving products krupp mak engines kiel germany 1997 marine diesel engines renamed motoren but still uses mak brand name perkins engines peterborough uk 1998 small diesel engines produces both cat and perkins branded engines f g wilson larne northern ireland 1999 generators produces both cat and olympian branded gen sets hindustan motors earthmoving equipment division chennai india 2000 construction equipment acquired from hindustan motors group and renamed india elphinstone burnie australia 2000 underground mining equipment renamed underground mining sabre engines ltd united kingdom 2000 marine engines renamed marine power uk produces both cat and perkins sabre branded engines wealdstone engineering ltd rushden united kingdom 2004 remanufacturer of gasoline and diesel engines williams technologies inc summerville south carolina 2004 remanufacturer of automatic transmissions torque converters and engines turbomach sa riazzino switzerland 2004 packager of industrial gas turbines and related systems progress rail albertville alabama 2006 railroad equipment remanufacturing hindustan powerplus ltd mathagondapalli india 2006 engine components and heavy duty diesel engines buyout of joint venture formed in 1988 renamed power india private ltd merged into india in 2008 eurenov chaumont france 2007 automotive component remanufacturing blount international inc forestry division portland oregon 2007 timber harvesting and processing equipment loaders and attachments shandong engineering machinery sem china 2008 construction equipment lovat canada 2008 tunnel boring machines shin mitsubishi sagami akashi japan 2008 construction equipment joint venture since 1963 with purchase of majority became japan ltd mge equipamentos servios ferrovirios brazil 2008 railroad equipment remanufacturing division of s progress rail gremada industries west fargo north dakota 2008 remanufacturing transmissions torque converters and final drives jcs co ltd south korea 2009 seal technology a subsidiary of jinsung t e c co ltd a south korea based manufacturer that produces undercarriage components business lines boots as of the first quarter of 2006 44 of s sales are to overseas customers products are sold in nearly 200 countries the company has a worldwide network of 220 dealers 63 dealers in the united states and 157 in other countries products and components are manufactured in 51 plants in the united states and 59 plants in australia belgium brazil canada england france germany hungary india indonesia italy japan mexico the netherlands northern ireland the people s republic of china poland russia singapore south africa and sweden also licenses the manufacturing of branded clothing hats footwear and other consumer products s historical manufacturing home is in peoria illinois where its world headquarters and core research and development activities are located although has farmed out much of its local parts production and warehousing to outside firms it still has four major plants in the peoria area the mapleton foundry where diesel engine blocks and other large parts are cast the east peoria factory which has assembled tractors for over 70 years the mossville engine plant built after world war ii and the morton parts facility vehicles main article list of models cat 365b demolition vehicle in action has a list of some 400 products for purchase through its dealer network s line of vehicles range from tracked tractors to hydraulic excavators backhoe loaders motor graders off highway trucks wheel loaders and agricultural tractors they are used in construction road building mining forestry energy transportation and material handling industries d350d articulated off road truck is the world s largest manufacturer of wheel loaders the medium size mwl and large size lwl are designed at their aurora illinois facility medium wheel loaders are manufactured at aurora illinois sagamihara kanagawa japan gosselies charleroi belgium piracicaba so paulo brazil india and the people s republic of china large wheel loaders are manufactured exclusively in the united states on three separate assembly lines at aurora illinois some of the company s current and historic vehicles include track type tractors bulldozers 60 d series diesel d4 d5 d6 d7 d8 d9 d10 d11 pipelayers 589 578 583k 572f 572g 572rii 561c 561d 561n motorgraders 12h global 140m 14m 140h global 160m 120m 12m 14h global small excavators 311d 312d 314d 315d 319d medium excavators 320d 321d 324d 328d 329d 336d large excavators 345d 365d 385d ultra high demolition excavators 330d uhd 345d uhd 365d uhd 385d uhd tracked loaders traxcavators 931 951 953 973 983 wheel loaders 930 938 it38 950 962 it62 966 972 980 988 990 992 993 994 articulated dump truck adt d350d 740 ejector rigid dump trucks 773b 773d 777 789 793d 797f the world s largest mechanical drive truck rollers cs 533e engines twin 3208t engines powering clogher head lifeboat ireland a portion of cat s business is in the manufacturing of diesel and natural gas engines and gas turbines which in addition to their use in the company s own vehicles are used as the prime movers in locomotives semi trucks and ships as well as providing the power source for peak load power plants and emergency generators defence products the defence products subsidiary headquartered in shrewsbury shropshire provides diesel engines automatic transmissions and other parts for the uk s titan armored bridge layer trojan combat engineering tank terrier combat engineering vehicles and tank transporters the romanian mli 84 armored personnel carrier and the swiss piranha iii light armored vehicle which is currently being developed for use by american light armored formations large fleets of military trucks in both the u s and uk and the cv90 family of infantry fighting vehicles used by the armies of sweden norway finland switzerland the netherlands and denmark this division also provides both propulsion engines and power generation systems to the naval shipbuilding industry such as the series 3512b turbocharged v 12 diesel engine for american virginia class nuclear submarines diesel engines are also used in san antonio class amphibious transport docks spanish alvaro de bazn class frigates british river class patrol vessels mexican sierra class patrol boats and malaysian kedah class meko a 100 offshore patrol vessels electronics the electronics business unit has formed trimble control technologies llc ctct a 50 50 joint venture with trimble navigation to develop the next generation of advanced electronic guidance and control products for earthmoving machines in the construction mining and waste industries trimble control technologies llc is based in dayton ohio and started its operations on april 1 2002 product distribution branded products are distributed to end users through s worldwide dealer network s dealers are independently owned and operated businesses with exclusive geographical territories dealers provide sales maintenance and repair services rental equipment and parts distribution finning is s largest global distributor most dealers use the dealer management system called dbs dealer business system for their day to day operations management has a corporate governance structure where the chairman of the board also acts as chief executive officer ceo the board of directors is fully independent and is made up of non employee directors selected from outside the company several group presidents report to the ceo and multiple vice presidents report to each group president the board has four committees audit compensation governance and public policy the behavior of all employees is governed by a code of worldwide business conduct first published in 1974 and last amended in 2005 which sets the corporate standard for honesty and ethical behavior management employees are retested on this code annually current board of directors james w owens chairman and ceo w frank blount john r brazil daniel m dickinson john t dillon eugene v fife gail d fosler juan gallardo david r goode peter a magowan william a osborn charles powell edward b rust jr joshua i smith on october 22 2009 announced that douglas r oberhelman will succeed james w owens as ceo on july 1 2010 and as chairman on october 31 2010 this was reported on page 14 of construction equipment guide in its saturday october 31 2009 edition employment worldwide employment was 94 225 at the end of third quarter 2009 employment declined by approximately 17 900 from third quarter 2008 due to restructuring of business operations the decades since the 1990s have seen the elimination of 20 000 high wage union jobs in the peoria illinois area while employment has increased due to the use of more non u s and nonunion labor according to a 2001 article in the nashville business journal 60 of s employees work outside the united states labor problems followings are the labor problems came close to bankruptcy in the early 1980s at one point losing almost 1 million per day due to a sharp downturn in product demand as competition with japanese rival komatsu who at the time used the internal slogan encircle caterpillar heated up the company also suffered when the united states declared an embargo against the soviet union after they invaded afghanistan causing the company to be unable to sell millio
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