Caterpillar, a heavy-equipment maker whose booming business has already led it to expand in Sanford and Winston-Salem, plans to add 199 well-paying jobs at its plant in Johnston County over the next five years.

The Illinois-based company will invest $33 million in its Clayton plant, where it manufactures earth-moving equipment.

Caterpillar chose Clayton over sites in Illinois, Japan, Belgium and Brazil - all locations where it has manufacturing plants.

"It's going to be a nice boost to our local economy because those people ... will be going downtown for lunch, and they're going to be buying gasoline along Highway 70," said Clayton Mayor Jody McLeod.

"Now we compete globally," he added. Caterpillar is eligible to receive more than $2 million from the state if it meets hiring and investment goals. The company also received millions in incentives in 2010 to expand its Sanford plant and to build a new plant in Winston-Salem, which held its grand opening in November.

After cutting hundreds of local jobs during the recession, the company has nearly doubled its North Carolina workforce in the past 18 months. Caterpillar now employs nearly 2,000 workers at more than a half-dozen locations.

Its Sanford expansion will create 325 jobs over four years, while its new factory in Winston-Salem will eventually employ 392 people.

The company currently employs about 450 in Clayton. As part of this latest expansion, the company will build a new engineering and test facility near its manufacturing plant.

It marks a reversal from 2010, when the company laid off 121 workers in Clayton as the result of weak demand and a shift of some production to Britain. Since then the company has added a new assembly line in Clayton and shifted some production from overseas.

Surging sales and profits are at the heart of Caterpillar's stepped-up manufacturing efforts.

Last week, the company reported that sales for 2011 rose 41 percent to $60.14 billion, while net income jumped 83 percent to $4.93 billion. The company hadn't seen that kind of sales growth, on a percentage basis, since 1947.

The company's sales growth is not being driven solely by emerging markets such as Brazil.

"They are winning in emerging markets as well as in developed markets, which have been their traditional stronghold," said analyst Lawrence DeMaria of William Blair & Co.

Despite a weak North American construction market, equipment sales to North American customers are on the upswing as companies replace older equipment, DeMaria added.

The company also is benefitting from an improving economy and a rise in certain commodity prices, such as gold, copper and coal, which is spurring mining companies to dig deeper for reserves - and buy more mining equipment.

"For many products, demand has been above our ability to produce," CEO Doug Oberhelman told analysts during a conference call late last month. "As an example, for many models of large trucks, we are now quoting delivery times into 2014."

The Clayton plant produces wheel loaders, a type of earth-moving equipment used at construction sites. In addition to manufacturing workers, Caterpillar will be adding to its engineering and design staff, said spokesman Jim Dugan.

The new jobs will pay an average of $41,466 plus benefits, above the county average of $31,460.

The terms of the latest state incentives package require Caterpillar to have a total of 1,144 jobs in 2012 and 1,278 in 2014 at its facilities in Johnston, Lee and Wake counties.

Caterpillar added more than 14,000 workers worldwide in 2011, giving it a total of 125,099 employees.

Staff writer David Bracken contributed to this story.