It was bad news for three cities, one in Georgia, one in Kentucky and another in Quebec, Canada. But it was unequivocally good news for Newberry this spring when Komatsu reorganized, basing all of its North American operations here.

March 6, Komatsu America, which manufactures large earth moving equipment and has a plant just outside the Newberry city limits, announced it and its affiliates were closing three plants. The scaled-down operations from two of those locations, Candiac, Quebec, Canada and Covington, Ga. were moving to Newberry, along with approximately 50 additional workers.

And since, the Newberry location has also made use of the abundant surrounding land Komatsu purchased, housing finished machinery in large lots prior to delivery.

This fall brought the final steps of bringing those two lines to production at the Highway 219/Interstate 26 interchange — and more investment still.

Sept. 28, Dalkotech Inc. announced its plans to move into a neighboring spot to Komatsu in the Newberry Industrial Park in a pre-existing building. The move brings about 50 more jobs and a Canadian company that specializes in welding and machining industrial components.

The Dalkotech facility in Newberry came online late this fall and is robotically welding large frame components for wheel loaders at Komatsu-Newberry, one of its two new product lines.