A Cascade fork positioner on a forklift.

Cascade Corp plans within months to expand into the construction attachment market through buying an existing company.

It was "unclear yet" whether manufacturing attachments for a variety of heavy-construction equipment would involve forks for telescopic handlers or truck-mounted forklifts, said Richard Anderson, Cascade senior vice president and chief financial officer.

Other details about the possible deal were unavailable, but Cascade is negotiating an increase in its revolving credit facility to USD125 million from USD25 million to fund the planned expansion and provide short-term funding for a share repurchase program.

Globally, Cascade manufactures forks in seven factories and is building an eighth in Xiamen, China.

Robert Warren, Cascade CEO, said: "A year and a half ago, with the upswing in the North American market, we almost got caught flatfooted by a huge increase in demand for forks. We had already initiated a line expansion of North American production, and were able to hold all our customer base, but just barely."

The 2005 expansion doubled manufacturing capacity at Cascade's Findlay, Ohio, USA, plant and helped the company "move back from total use of capacity to a much more comfortable level".

Portland-based Cascade manufactures materials-handling load engagement devices and related replacement parts, primarily for the forklift industry. For the second quarter ended July 31, Cascade reported profit of USD11.9 million on sales of USD119.4 million. Profit was up 11 per cent and sales up 4 per cent from 2005's comparable quarter.