Keith D. Nosbusch
Analyst · John Inch with Bank of America
Well, I mean, you hit the one area where we have probably the greatest concern and I would say the greatest uncertainty. Europe, it's hard to speak in Europe as one. Certainly, at a minimum, there's a divide between North and South Europe. And South Europe, for the last half of the year, was performing weaker than the North. And when I say the North, I mean Germany, the Scandinavian countries in particular. So we are seeing a difference within, I'll just say, Western Europe. And the outlook there is, certainly, are slowing in particular. We know that European OEM machine makers will have a slower growth than they did in 2011. Some of the industry organizations have forecast that indicate there'll be a slowing from very high levels to, I'll say, a lower growth rate, but still growth. And we certainly know, talking to our OEMs, that while they are running at very high levels and they're certainly coming up to their capacity heads, they feel good about the next quarter. But I think as we roll into calendar 2012, they have less visibility. And as I said, those industry statistics indicate that it'll be slowing. Some people say Europe's going to be in a recession. I think we're certainly on the edge. If you look at some of the recent PMI information, some of the industrial production, it's certainly slowing. And how they work their way through the debt crisis I think will tell us which side of zero do they fall on. And at this point, I think it's just a tough call. We like our position in Europe. We think we have growing share there this past year as evidenced by the very strong growth we had year-over-year. Obviously, it's not our most -- it's not the best position given our strongest global competitor, that is their home country. But we like our position. We like our differentiation with our integrated architecture and our intelligent motor control. And as we are growing our solutions and services capabilities, these are all opportunities for us to grow share in an area where we are definitely not the leaders. So we like our position. We like our differentiation. And as I mentioned earlier, that team there is functioning really well, executing the priorities and winning in the areas that we've targeted for growth.