Speaking at the ConExpo-Con/Agg trade show in Las Vegas, Barton also introduced analysts to the company's newest products and the technology that drives their differentiation from competitive machines.
"Investors have been telling us for years that we had to prove our diversification and show we can withstand a major downturn, including a U.S. recession, and still deliver attractive profits," Barton said. "We have done that. Our earnings and our diverse businesses show that we are more than a cyclical company."
Barton pointed to Cat's Advanced Combustion Emissions Reduction Technology (ACERT), which Caterpillar expects to make available to meet on-highway truck emissions regulations in the third quarter of 2003, as one of its technological breakthroughs.
Among the diversified product lines highlighted were the company's compact construction equipment line, headed by the flagship skid steer loader; articulated trucks, a new line of excavators, the company's largest mining truck and mining shovels and a new family of backhoe loaders.
