Komatsu Ltd., the world's second-biggest maker of dump trucks, said appetite for its mining equipment in Africa, Central America and South America is offsetting lower-than-expected demand in China.
"Production at mining companies has been firm and there's demand coming from Japan and the U.S.," Chairman Masahiro Sakane said in an interview in Nagano Prefecture on Thursday. "That will probably help us make up for China, where we don't see any signs of improvement."
Komatsu, whose dump trucks and excavators are used in open-pit mining, rose the most in two weeks Thursday in Tokyo trading after BNP Paribas Securities Japan Ltd. recommended the shares, citing better cost management. Tokyo-based Komatsu and Hitachi Construction Machinery Co. have been held down by an "overly pessimistic" outlook for the global construction machinery industry, Christopher Cintavey, an analyst at BNP Paribas, said in a report.
Komatsu forecast sales to rise 6 percent to ¥2.1 trillion for the year ending March 31. Operating profit may rise 23 percent to ¥315 billion, according to the company's April forecast. Revenue from the Americas accounted for about 23 percent of the total in the year that ended last March 31, compared with 20 percent from Japan and 14 percent for China.