Caterpillar creating 200 jobs in west Belfast

The new jobs will be at Caterpillar's Springvale site

The global manufacturing firm Caterpillar is to create 200 administrative jobs in west Belfast.

The jobs will service its operations in Northern Ireland and overseas.

They follow cuts to the manufacturing side of the business announced last year.

US-based Caterpillar bought over the Northern Ireland engineering firm FG Wilson - which makes diesel generator sets - in 1999.

In September last year, it said it was making 760 people redundant across its three locations in west Belfast, Newtownabbey and Larne.

But on Tuesday it announced it is creating 200 "shared services jobs" on the administrative side.

The new jobs will be located at its Springvale site in west Belfast.

Caterpillar's Northern Ireland operations director Robert Kennedy said the company is pleased to announce Northern Ireland as the location of choice for this expansion of services.

The new jobs will attract £1.7m in grants from InvestNI and the Department for Employment and Learning.