Caterpillar operates in Vietnam

Caterpillar operates in Vietnam

HANOI (Reuter): Caterpillar Inc, the U.S. heavy construction equipment giant, has launched its Vietnam operations with the announced founding of a 100-percent U.S.-owned local company, V- TRAC.

V-TRAC's majority shareholder is Anthony D. Salzman, an American businessman who came to Vietnam in 1992, when a U.S. economic embargo barred Caterpillar from doing business in Vietnam. Washington lifted that embargo last February.

Caterpillar also holds an equity interest in V-TRAC, which will sell, lease, rent and maintain its heavy equipment for mining, road- and dam construction and a wide range of other uses, V-TRAC said in a statement.

Vietnam is planning some huge construction projects, some funded by international agencies like the World Bank, to upgrade its roads, ports, airports and other outdated infrastructure in the next 20 years.

Japan's Komatsu, already established in Vietnam, is expected to be one of V-TRAC's main competitors in supplying heavy equipment for these projects.