As China's economy cools, some big US and European companies are losing what had been one of their surest growth bets.

Caterpillar Inc , 3M Co , United Technologies Corp and ABB Ltd are among the manufacturers that have reported weak performances in China in the first quarter, as economic growth slowed to a near three-year-low.

That is making investors nervous, though some Western chief executives predict a return to rapid growth in China, fueled by the government's easing monetary policy and expansion into faster-growing cities inland.

Caterpillar's sales in China fell by $250 million to $300 million in the first quarter, forcing the world's largest maker of earth-moving equipment to export about 20 percent of its China-made equipment to other countries this year.

"We are introducing programs inside China to work with dealers to get some of that inventory in the hands of customers," Caterpillar Chief Executive Doug Oberhelman said.

Concerns about China overshadowed better-than-expected earnings at the Peoria, Illinois-based company and led investors to push the stock down 5 percent on Wednesday. They traded near flat on Thursday.

Swiss engineering group ABB, a maker of power equipment, this week reported profit that was shy of analysts' expectations due to weak Chinese demand.

"It was a very slow start to the year for China. China in January was extremely weak," ABB Chief Financial Officer Michel Demare said on Wednesday.

To be sure, not every Western company is suffering in China.

Apple Inc , for example, reported a five-fold gain in sales of iPhones in Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, helping quarterly profit shoot past market expectations.

But Chinese government measures to cool an overheated housing market have weighed on consumer and industrial demand in recent months, prompting Western executives to replace the superlatives they usually employ to describe China with less-rosy terms like "tough" and "mediocre."

"Our business in China is off to a slow start," said Greg Hayes, chief financial officer of United Technologies Corp , whose Otis arm is the world's biggest maker of elevators. The unit's Chinese sales dropped 9 percent in the first quarter.

"The ongoing government effort to bring housing prices down has negatively impacted the higher end of the residential sector, which represents about half of Otis' China sales."

Beijing in March cut its official forecast for 2012 economic growth to an eight-year low of 7.5 percent, a move analysts said signaled authorities would be more focused on economic reforms than stimulus.

Finnish escalator maker Kone Oyj said growth in its Chinese markets would slow from 10 percent in the first quarter to between zero and 5 percent in the second. Truck maker Volvo AB on Thursday cut its forecast for the Chinese construction equipment market this year to a fall of between 15 to 25 percent from a previous outlook for a flat market.