Also a voluntary redundancy program has been launched at the Desford plant, which mainly produces backhoes.
The plant firm said it had no specific job cut figures but union Unite revealed 175 agency staff had gone ahead of redundancy consultations among permanent staff this week.
A Caterpillar spokesman said: “After a good start to 2012 projected production volumes for our products are lower than we previously expected.
“We are taking a number of actions at Caterpillar Desford in order to adjust production to match demand and realign our business accordingly.
“In addition to the actions related to the agency workforce, we have also communicated to employees about a voluntary severance program. As such, at this time, we do not have a total figure for the reduction in workforce.”
The news comes just two years after Caterpillar recruited 300 workers to handle the recovery in global demand and a shift of fixed pivot backhoe loaders production from the US to UK.