Affected by the global recession and lower volumes, Cummins saw a drop in sales and profit during the second quarter.
The company's earnings before interest and taxes were $109 million, while the year-ago quarter had earnings of $469 million. Sales fell to $2.43 billion, a 37 percent drop from $3.89 billion in the second quarter of 2008. The company attributes the declines to sharply lower volumes.

"The economic climate continues to be extremely challenging, and we are managing our business under the assumption that we won't see any recovery in our markets in 2009," said Tim Solso, Cummins chairman and CEO. "Still, our aggressive efforts to reduce costs and align manufacturing capacity with demand have allowed us to perform well under the circumstances and to position ourselves to emerge from the downturn an even stronger company."

The company points to its engine and components segments as having the most reductions in demand. Sales in these segments were down 45 percent and 41 percent, respectively. The engine segment saw a quarterly loss of $4 million, versus a $221 million profit during the second quarter of 2008. The components sector experienced a $10 million loss, compared with a $77 million profit for the year-ago quarter.