WEST FARGO (KFGO) – Bobcat is building a new manufacturing plant in Mexico.
The West Fargo-headquartered skid steer and compact loader company has confirmed that it is expanding to Monterrey, Mexico. Doosan-Bobcat North America President Mike Ballweber said it will not mean the loss of jobs at the plants in Gwinner or Bismarck.
“We don’t anticipate that happening at all,” Ballwebber said. “We have a really good relationship with the union and, obviously with an announcement of this nature, timing matters, but we’ve communicated with them and been very upfront about what it is. We don’t expect any loss of labor in the state, or any of our facilities. I think we’ve added 30% employees just in the state of North Dakota in the last five years and we’ll continue to add as our demand continues to go up.”
In late September, the president of the Steelworkers Union representing Bobcat employees in North Dakota expressed concern that the Mexico plant would lead to the loss of up to 500 jobs in North Dakota.
At the time, the company refused to comment on possible plans to expand to Mexico and disputed the union’s contention that jobs would be eliminated.
Ballweber said the Mexico plant will provide 600 to 800 jobs.
“This is really a growth for Bobcat,” Ballweber said. “This facility is going to give us about 20% more capacity than we have today. If we look out into our long-range plan, that’s exactly what we have anticipated from a demand standpoint. With that, we’ll be building more R-Series out of Gwinner. We also build other products there, like our Tool Cat. Those are also at very high demand. “
The estimated cost is about $300 million. Production should begin in 2026.