A spate of recent news indicates a number of manufacturing sectors are making major investments to expand their infrastructures. Yet cost cutting, sky-high energy prices and fickle consumer demand have been dominating the headlines. We can’t help but wonder how much of this may be nothing more than a figment of the media’s imagination.

Earlier this week, for instance, coverage of the U.S. car industry makes it look as though it’s still trying to expand in the face of mounting foreign competition. A barrage of recent news indicates that other manufacturing sectors are also making major investments in their infrastructures. What does it all mean?

In the grand scheme of things, $35-50 million is chump change for Tier 1 manufacturers, especially for a company like Procter & Gamble (P&G). But that’s the price range the consumer goods giant is investing in an already ahead-of-its-time company, Gillette, which the company purchased a few years ago. Guess there’s always an opportunity to sell more expensive razors. What’s next? A six-blade, MP3-ready monstrosity that also makes toast and mows your lawn?

In any event, P&G’s multimillion-dollar investment goes toward its South Boston Manufacturing Center, a state-of-the-art facility also known as Gillette World Shaving Headquarters. The 33-acre South Boston site will house R&D, engineering, manufacturing, marketing and business support related to the Gillette Blade and Razor business.

“This major new investment underscores P&G’s continued strong commitment to our premier shaving facility and to our robust presence here in Massachusetts,” said Chip Bergh, president, global grooming. “By combining the key blade and razor functions in one location, we will further strengthen our focus on world-class shaving product innovation and manufacturing technology.”

While not as technologically savvy as the aforementioned P&G play, Nestle also has expansion on its mind. It is more of the global kind. The company plans to set up a manufacturing facility in the Middle East, according to Middle Eastern business news outlet AME. Nestle Middle East was set up in 1997, and its new facility expands upon the success it has enjoyed there.

Chairman and CEO, Nestle Middle East FZE, Jean-Louis Chaumeil said, “The base of Middle East operations in the Jebel Ali Free Zone has enabled Nestle to successfully cater to the needs of the entire region, and Nestle’s expansion into Techno Park is a testament to the growth and expansion it enjoys in Dubai, and in partnership with Jafza. We are also proud to be part of the industrial development of Dubai.”

Nestle has leased approximately 100,000 square meters of land in Techno Park and is scheduled to break ground on February 8 this year. The first phase of the facility will be operational by the end of 2007.

Perhaps the best indication that manufacturing expansion is picking up comes via Manufacturing.Net. Leading truck manufacturer, PACCAR — which makes DAG, Peterbilt and Kenworth brands — in a nutshell (or in a hubcap?) says it is ready to pony up some $400 million in a 400,000 square foot power-train manufacturing and assembly plant to meet the up-tick in anticipated demand. Hey, if there’s demand for trucks, that means there’s demand for a plethora of other products that manufacturers churn out … like plasma TVs.

DigiTimes says Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., known for its Panasonic brand, and diversified chemical group Toray Industries Inc. this week announced plans to spend about $2.3 billion to build a new plasma display panel (PDP) manufacturing facility in Japan, enabling Panasonic to boost its PDP production capacity to make it the largest such manufacturer in the world, as this new plant will have a monthly production capacity of one million units (42-inch panel equivalent). Justification for the investment:

Matsushita forecasts that with the rapid increase of the demand for flat-panel TVs due to the global digitalization of TV broadcasts, 65 percent of the 200 million world aggregate demand for TVs will be for flat-panel TVs in 2010. Panasonic also anticipates that the world PDP market will grow to 30 million units in 2010.

Despite the barrage of gloomy news of late, expansion stories are everywhere. And with JPMorgan claiming that “the rate of expansion in the global manufacturing sector steadied in December,” thanks to a recovery in the U.S. manufacturing sector, according to Reliable Plant, it would appear that the manufacturing community is just plain tired of cutting costs and wants to get back to doing what it does best:

Make stuff.