Dive Brief:
- Heavy machinery maker Bobcat is investing $300 million to build a manufacturing plant in Monterrey, Mexico, the company announced earlier this month.
- The new plant will span 65,000 square meters and create up to 800 jobs, including in welding, painting and assembly, as well as in an on-site warehouse and office space.
- The facility will produce Bobcat’s M-series compact loaders and skid-steer loader models for North American distribution, expanding the company’s production capacity on the continent by 20%, according to the release.
Dive Insight:
The upcoming plant will allow Bobcat’s existing site in Gwinner, North Dakota, to focus on producing its R-Series compact loader models, the company said.
“As a global company with manufacturing facilities, offices, dealerships and customers across the globe, we have seen tremendous growth and increased demand for our products,” Doosan Bobcat CEO Scott Park said in a statement.
The new site will also allow Bobcat’s facility in Dobris, Czech Republic, to focus on producing the M-Series loaders for the European, Middle Eastern and African regions, which have a growing demand for heavy equipment.
“Globally, Bobcat will better serve customers by expanding our manufacturing facilities and shortening lead times,” Gary Hornbacher, Doosan Bobcat President for the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions, said in a Nov. 8 statement.
Bobcat is a subsidiary of Doosan Bobcat, part of the Doosan Group, which the South Korea-based conglomerate acquired in 2007.
The Monterrey site will be Bobcat’s first manufacturing facility in Mexico. The company said it chose Monterrey for its well-established industrial sector and close proximity to the U.S. The city is home to roughly 50 industrial parks, and more than 1,000 companies like Caterpillar, John Deere and Mercedes Benz have facilities in the Monterrey metropolitan area.
Other companies are also establishing manufacturing sites in and around the Mexican city’s metropolitan area. Tesla announced in March that it was building a gigafactory near Monterrey with a goal to produce 20 million EVs a year.
