For sales and revenues, the revised range is $38 billion to $42 billion. The revised 2010 profit outlook is a range of $2.50 to $3.25 per share.

“The main driver behind our improved outlook is robust growth in Asia/Pacific and Latin America and continued improvement in mining and energy globally,” Owens said. “We are increasing production schedules and expect sales to improve as we move through 2010. We remain highly focused on execution — the deployment of the Caterpillar Production System using 6 Sigma, tight cost management, efficiently ramping up production and preparing for Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Tier 4 emission requirements. We expect to continue to add employees around the world to support growth and in the  United States to support growing exports. We are confident in the ability of the entire Caterpillar team — our suppliers, employees and dealers — to work together to meet growing customer demand.”

Click here for a downloadable PDF of the Caterpillar first-quarter 2010 earnings statement.