COLUMBUS, Ind. (April 7, 2004) — Engine maker Cummins Inc. raised its earnings outlook based on a recovery in the heavy-truck sector and other markets, sending its shares to a nearly five-year high.

Cummins, which also makes power generators and engines for construction and mining equipment, expects revenue to rise 15 per cent this year, nearly double last year’s revenue gain of 8 per cent, due to the broad increase in demand.

“It is across all of the engine markets, but more heavily weighted toward the heavy-duty trucks,” Karen Battin, Cummins’ executive director of investor relations, told Reuters news agency.

Bolstering demand is the need to replace aging trucks purchased during the industry’s boom years of the late 1990s, and more consumer faith in new EPA-mandated engines introduced in 2002.

However, the company warned that rapid price increases in steel, copper and other commodities could have an uncertain impact.

— with files from Reuters