Deere looks overseas for future sales

LAS VEGAS, March 13 (UPI) -- U.S. farm and heavy equipment maker Deere & Co. Thursday said it will lean on overseas markets, where construction equipment sales are expected to boom.

Samuel Allen, president of Deere's construction and forestry division, said in Las Vegas at a trade show, "China is clearly a very large market," pointing out that no large equipment manufacturers in the country dominate the market.

None "have more than a 6 percent or 7 percent market share," he said.

Similar to Caterpillar Inc. Chairman Jim Owens' talk at the show Wednesday, Deere sees emerging markets as hungry for heavy equipment.

Almost 90 percent of Deere's sales of construction equipment -- $4.02 billion in 2007 -- came from the United States and Canada last year, Crain's Business Journal reported.

But, Allen noted that 30,000 excavators were sold in China in 2007 and that number is expected to rise to 100,000 a year by 2011.

Deere has already established itself in China with the purchased of 50 percent of Xuzhou Xuwa Excavator Machinery Co., the report said.