September 23, 2010, Caterpillar broke ground for a new hydraulic excavator manufacturing facility in Victoria, Texas. Production is anticipated to begin in mid-2010, and once fully operational, the plant is expected to employ more than 500 people and triple the company’s U.S.-based excavator capacity. That’s good news for Victoria and for the U.S. economy. 

Among the excavator models the new facility will produce are several currently manufactured in Akashi, Japan, and exported to the U.S. While the facility in Japan will continue to operate to meet the growing demand for excavators in Asia, moving production of excavators for the North American market back to the U.S. is a welcome example of an onshoring/backshoring/reshoring trend that began in 2009. Just how is that trend holding up and will it continue? (more...)