Caterpillar has chosen Winston-Salem, North Carolina as the site of its new powertrain components manufacturing and assembly facility to provide extra capacity for its expanding business in global mining operations. Sites in South Carolina and Alabama had also been under consideration for the plant.
The company plans to construct an approximately 850,000 square foot state-of-the-art manufacturing facility for the machining, assembly, test and painting of axle assemblies for large mining machines. The new plant will allow the company to continue its expansion plans at some of its existing facilities around the world.
"Caterpillar has worked hard with many local partners in North Carolina, and we thank them for their assistance during the site selection process," said Hans Haefeli, vice president of Caterpillar's Advanced Components & Systems Division.
"We look forward to establishing our new lower powertrain facility in Winston-Salem, which will allow us to substantially increase our capacity, improve process capability, flexibility and flow of our operations. This location will improve our supply chain efficiency and, as a result, allows us to better serve our customers more effectively while reducing operating costs."
Construction is expected to begin in early November 2010, with production beginning in the first quarter of 2012. When the plant is fully operational, it is expected to employ almost 400 workers.The company also expects to need another 120 contract workers at the plant.
Caterpillar currently employs around 1,000 full-time workers in North Carolina. The company has locations throughout the state in Cary, Charlotte, Clayton, Franklin, Goldsboro, Morganton, New Bern, Sanford and Smithfield.
