US-based Caterpillar Inc. Thursday announced it has selected the city of Victoria, Texas, as the location for the company's new state-of-the-art hydraulic excavator manufacturing facility. Ground breaking for the 600,000-square-foot manufacturing operation is scheduled to take place in September 2010. The facility is expected to begin production in mid-2012. Once fully operational, it will triple the current capacity of hydraulic excavators produced by the company in the United States. The decision to increase manufacturing capacity is part of Caterpillar's "long-term strategic initiative to develop the appropriate global footprint to competitively produce hydraulic excavators".
Currently in the US, Caterpillar produces two excavator models at a facility in Aurora, Illinois, where it also produces wheel loaders, soil and landfill compactors, wheel dozers and components. The new facility will manufacture the two models now made in Aurora, as well as several additional excavator models now produced in Akashi, Japan, and exported to the United States.
At current, Caterpillar is the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines.