A BULLDOZER track maker is creating new jobs and investing in machinery to meet rising global demand.

Caterpillar, based in Skinningrove, east Cleveland, is taking on workers to boost production of track shoes for its range of large earthmovers.

Bosses say the expansion will create ten posts.

The shoes will be used as spare parts for customers across Europe, Africa, the Middle-East and Russia.

Fitted to bulldozers, the shoes are relied upon by firms to weather the harshest environments in construction, earthmoving and mining and quarrying sites.

Caterpillar's Skinningrove factory, which employs 67 workers, already makes track shoes for small and medium-sized bulldozers, used on projects such as landscaping and creating roadside slopes.

The plant opened in 1997 and carries out work such as steel cutting, heat treatment and painting.

It also sits next to Tata Steel's Special Profiles plant, which provides steel for earthmoving vehicles.

Neil Anderson, Caterpillar's Skinningrove managing director, said: “This announcement demonstrates the confidence the company has in the capabilities of the Skinningrove team.

“It also recognises the high standard of processes, skills and expertise based at the factory.”

The news is a welcome boost to Caterpillar's UK operations after The Northern Echo last month revealed it had been forced to cut jobs in its articulated truck building division to counter a drop in market demand.

More than 110 posts are understood to have been at risk at its factory in Peterlee, east Durham, though bosses have not confirmed the exact number of jobs lost.

The company's sister factory, in Stockton, which makes parts for loaders and excavators, is not believed to have been affected by the changes.

In 2012, the US-headquartered company revealed plans to expand its Stockton base in response to an increase in demand for earthmovers across South America, Asia and US construction and mining industries.