commentTerex Corp., Westport, Conn., on Dec. 20 agreed to sell its mining equipment business to South Milwaukee, Wis.-based Bucyrus International Inc. for $1.3 billion in cash. Them firm plans to use some of the proceeds to buy companies “beaten down by the recession,” says Chairman and CEO Ron DeFeo. If the deal closes by the end of next quarter as planned, Bucyrus would provide a wider global footprint in mining, which Terex lacks. Terex would have had to invest $150 million to $200 million “in order to take this business to the next level,” says DeFeo. The move positions Terex to continue its transformation into a global manufacturer of special-category equipment rather than a full-line producer of construction and mining machines. But the firm is shying away from expanding further into “low-cost countries,” says DeFeo. “The Chinese are developing cranes quickly,” he says. “If I could find an industrial product category which did not have that level of exposure to China, then I think that might not be a bad place to be.”
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