Post Date: 2012-02-10 Caterpillar Japan Ltd., one of the biggest construction equipment manufacturers in the world, said that it planned to produce a record number of excavators this year to meet the infrastructure rebuilding following the earthquake.

The venture between Peoria, Illinois-based Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (7011) may boost production by 20 percent at its Akashi plant in western Japan, spokesman Mutsumi Miyanaga said today by telephone. Output at the Sagamihara plant near Tokyo that produces bulldozers and wheel-loaders will probably increase by 15 percent, he said, without giving actual production figures.

Caterpillar and rivals Komatsu Ltd. and Hitachi Construction Machinery Co. are boosting production in Japan to help rebuild areas devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Construction machinery makers increased sales by 32 percent in the October-to-December quarter, according to a Jan. 31 presentation by Tokyo-based Komatsu. Sales from Southeast Asia gained 25 percent in the period, it said.

Caterpillar Japan will reconfigure three production lines at the Akashi plant to increase monthly excavator capacity to 2,000 units from 1,500 units, the Nikkei newspaper reported today, without saying where it obtained the information.

In 2008, Caterpillar took control of the Japanese venture, which was founded in November 1963. Caterpillar Japan has 5,630 group employees, according to its website.