Caterpillar, Inc. has a seventy five year history of providing quality construction machinery and equipment in the United States, and has more recently has expanded its repertoire to include product development in the areas of transportation, mining, forestry, energy, logistics, electronics, financing and electric power generation. The construction equipment industry provides several major categories of equipment for use by the larger construction industry. Earthmoving machinery is utilized by companies involved in residential and commercial construction, as well as those involved in highway construction and dam-building.
             Quite often, the construction machinery and equipment industry overlaps that of industrial truck and tractor products. Not surprisingly, industrial truck and tractor products are used in nearly every industrial setting, from supermarkets to missile manufacturing installations. In 2001, the industrial truck, tractor, trailer, and stacker machinery system industry shipped products valued at $5.2 billion.
             The construction machinery and equipment is an older industry, which has been built upon society's continuous need for repair, replacement, and new construction of infrastructure, residential, and commercial properties. After eight years of consecutive growth in the mid -1990s, the industry has now stabilized in Stage 4 of the Industry Life Cycle; Stabilization and Market Maturity. Sales are currently growing in line with the economy, boosted by lower interest rates, international construction ventures, and consolidation measures. Competition between the leaders in the industry is ensuring tight profit margins. Among several of the competitors within the industry, the rates of return on assets and return on equity have also evened out, and continue to hover around the competitive level.
             In the late 1990s, low interest rates and a booming economy fueled constructi
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