Caterpillar may buy 51% of Xuzhou

Caterpillar, the world's No 1 maker of earth-moving equipment, is in negotiations to buy a 51% stake in Xuzhou Construction, the core unit of Xugong Machinery China's top machinery maker, as Caterpillar seeks a larger stake in China's US$12.5bn construction market, Reuters reported. The US company's China sales approached US$1bn last year.