Caterpillar Inc. announced today that it plans to open a new manufacturing facility in Thailand to build underground mining machinery.
The company will break ground on the new factory in early 2011, with production scheduled to begin in late 2012. The facility will produce a full range of underground mining articulated trucks and loaders, which are used by Caterpillar customers around the world in hard-rock underground mining applications.
"We continue to make strategic investments in our mining business to support our customers," said Chris Curfman, president of Caterpillar Global Mining and a Caterpillar Inc. vice president.
"We are pleased to announce our first manufacturing facility in Thailand, which will increase our capacity for our existing range of underground mining machinery, particularly as we sharpen our focus on meeting long term customer demand in growth markets."
The 60,000 square meter (645,000 square feet) factory will be located at the Hemaraj Rayong Industrial Land in Rayong Province. The new facility will increase the current production of underground mining products produced by Caterpillar in Australia and Brazil to respond to the growth in demand. Once the facility in Thailand is fully operational and at full capacity, it is expected to employ about 800 people.
"The on-going infrastructure development plans for the world's growth markets combined with a long-term trend toward urbanization and growing wealth in emerging economies should continue to help drive long term demand for commodities," said Steve Wunning, Caterpillar group president with responsibility for resource industries. "This facility will help to position Caterpillar for continued leadership in the mining industry."
