Caterpillar may move excavator assembly

In an effort to stay competitive, Caterpillar officials say, the company may move its Aurora excavating production to a new plant in the United States.

Executives at Caterpillar, the world's largest maker of bulldozers, met with employees in Aurora this week to explain that the idea to build a new facility in an as yet unnamed location is preliminary at this point and part of an ongoing analysis.

"We're taking a strategic look and studying the best approach to take long term," said Caterpillar spokesman Jim Dugan. "The excavator business is highly competitive."

About 250 of the 2,300 employees at the Aurora facility work on the hydraulic excavator assembly. The local plant also produces wheel loaders, soil and landfill compactors, wheel dozers and other components.

The company is "contemplating" constructing a free-standing building to assemble the hydraulic excavators. The new Caterpillar plant would house the assembly of the two excavator models currently built in Aurora and additional excavator models now produced in Japan and exported to the United States. The company also makes excavators in Belgium, Brazil, China, France, Indonesia and Russia.

"The thinking behind this is if a focused, stand alone facility in the United States to produce the excavators would be a better approach to take," Dugan said. "If the plan moves forward, three or four years down the road, we'd have a single facility that would produce a wider range of excavators."

Hydraulic excavators are widely used in applications around the world. If finalized and approved, the new U.S.-based factory would be the primary North American source for excavators, the company said. Under this scenario, Caterpillar's Akaski, Japan, excavator facility would have the available capacity needed to better serve customers in the rapidly expanding Asia-Pacific region.