PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — Caterpillar Inc. plans to significantly expand one of its Chinese manufacturing plants to produce more wheeled excavators.
The world's largest maker of construction and mining equipment said Wednesday that this roughly $200 million project will expand the capacity of its Xuzhou, China, plant by 80 percent.
Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman says this will expand the range of products the Peoria, Ill., company offers in China. The expansion is expected to be completed by 2016 but Caterpillar expects the first wheeled excavators to be produced in Xuzhou in early 2014.
The excavators produced in Xuzhou will primarily be sold in China and won't affect the company's excavator production in Grenoble, France.
Caterpillar has 17 facilities in China and another nine under construction.