CAT · Earnings call · 2026Q3T · Full report
Strategic Rental Joint Venture
CATERPILLAR INC · 2026-10-29 · Importance 35 · Surprise 42
Caterpillar said its Cat dealer-owned rental joint venture, Major Projects, launched in the prior quarter and is seeing strong customer interest. The venture is intended to serve large-scale infrastructure projects across North America, including transportation, energy, manufacturing, and data-center construction. It provides a supplemental national rental solution for larger construction equipment and capabilities when individual dealer rental fleets are insufficient to execute projects at scale. Management said rental fleet loading was exceptionally strong in the third quarter and contributed significantly to sales-to-users growth.
Key facts
- Caterpillar loaded the Major Projects fleet heavily in the third quarter, and equipment is moving to projects as soon as it can be placed on the ground.
- Caterpillar's strategy is to get customers into Cat machines through renting, leasing, or buying, and the company is seeing customers do all three.
- Caterpillar's Major Projects JV supplements local dealers that lack the scale to serve projects and helps individual dealers participate in more rental deals.
- Caterpillar said the Major Projects JV also allows individual dealers to participate in more rental deals.