After reducing its work force by 33,000 people in 2009, Caterpillar Inc. has mounted a quick recovery and is emerging as the poster child for America’s manufacturing renaissance, Reuters reported.

In 24 months, 15 Caterpillar facilities have been built or updated in the United States, tens of thousands of workers have been added to the payroll and $2 billion has been committed for capital investments on its home soil this year.

“We haven’t seen Caterpillar doing this much building in the United States since probably the 1960s,” said Peter Holt, owner of the Holt Caterpillar dealership in San Antonio. Caterpillar is building a $200 million plant two hours southeast of his store, in Victoria, Texas, that is slated to start churning out badly needed excavators later this summer.

Underpinning Peoria, Ill.-based Caterpillar’s U.S. momentum is a flood of demand by heavy equipment users in America – ranging from construction companies to oil drillers to cement producers – who are looking to replace aging machines now that the economy is improving and credit is easier to obtain.

But a major U.S. expansion is not without risks for Caterpillar. The U.S. economic recovery could still derail, given high unemployment and weak housing markets. And the growth rate of global machinery sales is also tracking at its slowest pace since May 2010, although U.S. demand is brisk. Read more.