PEORIA, IL—Caterpillar Inc. won’t choose its home state of Illinois as the site of its new $150 million assembly plant, citing the state’s “unfriendly” business climate.
BLUE SPRINGS, MS—Toyota Motor Corp. is adding a second shift at its assembly plant here. The extra shift will boost annual production capacity at the plant to 150,000 units and employment to 2,000 workers.
KYLE, TX—Image Microsystems plans to build a new factory here to turn electronic waste into substrate material for street and highway signs. The plant could create more than 180 jobs in the next two years.
BROWNSVILLE, TX—Precision Coils is investing $3.7 million to renovate an old assembly plant here to improve production of its heating and cooling coils.
GREAT FALLS, MT—EMTEQ, a company specializing in technology for airline cabin comfort and power systems, officially opened its new assembly plant here. The company has already hired 20 employees and expects to hire 45 more by the end of the year.
Shreveport, LA, is home to an Android Industries assembly plant and a General Motors manufacturing plant. Located just 1 mile apart, the two companies work closely together.
CINCINATTI—Local manufacturers are revving up efforts to attract the region’s youngest workers to high-tech factory jobs of the future: Increasingly, they’re offering high-school kids job-shadowing opportunities, scholarships and apprenticeships where students split time between work and school.
