24 hour on-site hydraulic repair, replacement, hose & fitting services.
24 hour on-site hydraulic repair, replacement, hose & fitting services.
Caterpillar Inc. is an American heavy mechanism manufacturing company that designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells industrial gear around the world. Formed in 1925 from the merger of Holt Manufacturing Company and the C. L. Best Tractor Company, it is now headquartered in Deerfield, a suburb of Chicago. The distinctive yellow giant tops the global list of heavy industrial mechanism manufacturers.As of 2011, Caterpillar reports its financials through five business divisions: construction industries, resource industries, power systems, financial products, and all other segments. The company produces and manufactures diesel engines and cargo handling machinery for agricultural businesses and other industries. Caterpillar is one of the largest manufacturing companies not just in heavy industrial manufacturing but in the US, and is a Global Fortune 500 company and key component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. As of 2018, Caterpillar is the global leader and manufacturer of construction and mining machinery, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives. Caterpillar prides itself on its history of designing, developing, engineering, manufacturing, marketing, and selling machinery, engines, financial products, and insurance to customers through their large international dealer network.
Caterpillar Defence is a subsidiary producing mechanisms for the armed forces of the US and its allies. Headquartered in Shrewsbury in the United Kingdom, it produces diesel engines and automatic transmissions for tanks and bulldozers while also providing both propulsion engines and power-generation systems to the naval shipbuilding industry.
Komatsu Ltd. is a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures mechanisms with hydraulics for the fields of construction, mining, and military development, as well as industrial machinery like press machines, lasers, and thermoelectric generators. Headquartered in Tokyo, the corporation was established in 1921 when Komatsu Iron Works separated from Takeuchi Mining Co. Worldwide, the Komatsu Group consists of Komatsu Ltd. and 182 other companies. The company has manufacturing operations in Japan, Asia, the Americas, and Europe and is currently the world’s second-largest manufacturer of construction mechanics and mining equipment after Caterpillar. However, in Asia, Komatsu has a larger share of the heavy equipment manufacturing sector than Caterpillar. Apart from heavy equipment, it owns the Gigaphoton subsidiary, which creates laser light sources for leading-edge semiconductor lithography tools that require high resolution. It is also known for its diverse array of machine tools and industrial machines, which are indispensable for the production of cars, photovoltaic cells, and semiconductors used in computing.
Hitachi Construction Machinery Co. Ltd. is a construction mechanisms company in Japan and a Hitachi Group company. Founded in 1970, it now has almost 3,000 workers and sales offices in 28 locations across eight countries. It is mostly known for small appliances, but also produces world-class heavy mechanisms ranging from excavators, cranes, elevators, and loaders. The company produces both small and large-scale equipment for clients throughout the world for a varied range of tasks. HCM prides itself on producing mechanisms of the uppermost caliber, delivering superior productivity and durability while minimizing operating costs. Hitachi is most known for its excavators and loaders, and, in 1970, produced Japan’s first mechanical excavator.
Volvo CE is a key international company that develops, manufactures, and markets machinery for construction and construction-related industries. Originally founded in Eskilstuna, Sweden in 1832, Johan Theofron Munktell, then only 27, laid the company’s foundations when he was commissioned by the city to found an engineering workshop with the purpose of developing the local mechanical industry. In 1950, the company was purchased by the Volvo Group. Volvo CE is a subsidiary of the now Chinese-owned Volvo Group. Volvo CE’s products range from wheel loaders, hydraulic excavators, articulated haulers, motor graders, soil and asphalt compactors, pavers, backhoe loaders, skid steers, milling machines, and more. Volvo CE is headquartered in Brussels, and for decades has been one of the top 10 heavy equipment manufacturers in the world. As an auxiliary business of the Volvo Group, it mainly develops, manufactures, and markets heavy machinery for construction and its related industries.
The Liebherr Group is a large industrial heavy equipment manufacturer based in Switzerland. It owns over 100 companies structured into ten divisions. Liebherr has a worldwide workforce of over 42,000 workers and has been a top-tier global heavy machinery manufacturer for over a decade, becoming the world’s largest crane company in 2007. Liebherr builds the world’s most powerful and tallest crawler crane: the LR 13000. This mammoth crane is capable of lifting 3000 tons and has a maximum pulley height of over 800 feet. To achieve this world record, the LR 13000 was fitted with 400 tons of slewing platform ballast and 1500 tons of derrick ballast. Apart from tower cranes like the LR 13000, the Liebherr Group also manufactures all kinds and sizes of mobile construction cranes, earth-moving machinery, hydraulic excavators, wheel loaders, crawler tractors, crawler loaders, dump trucks, and more.
XCMG Group is a Chinese, government-owned, multinational heavy equipment manufacturing company with headquarters in Xuzhou. Founded in 1989, it formed a joint venture with Caterpillar in 1995. Since then, XCMG has been the largest manufacturer in China and has become one of the largest heavy construction machinery companies globally. The company is ranked 65th on the list of China’s Top 500 Companies, 44th on the list of China’s Top 100 Manufacturing Enterprises, and second in the list of China’s Top 100 Machinery Manufacturers. With a global market share of 4.3%, the company’s heavy equipment manufacturing continues to steadily grow. XCMG backhoes, skid steers, and cranes are an increasingly common sight across global construction sites, no longer a Chinese-exclusive construction manufacturer. In 2016, XCMG launched its modern dump truck model, the XCMG DE400, weighing no less than 400 tons empty, making it the biggest land vehicle ever produced for manufacturing production: a world record.
Doosan Infracore is an international company that manufactures many types and sizes of excavators, loaders, and diesel engines, among many other things. Doosan Infracore prides itself on being the best machinery company in Korea, as they do not view North Korea as being worthy of the Korean name. The company is relatively new to the heavy machine space and is often seen as an emerging global-tier engine manufacturer, with its engines currently in a diverse lineup of multi-purpose products that can meet tougher environmental regulations in the world. Based in Seoul, Doosan currently is conducting research on preventive maintenance solutions for construction equipment to improve productivity at construction sites by reducing equipment downtime in cooperation with Seoul National University and Hanyang University. It is also at the forefront of the 5G wireless revolution and is building industry-leading machinery with smart technologies.
Sany Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. was founded in 1994 as a subsidiary of the Sany Group, created in Lianyuan in the Hunan province. Sany is a Chinese multinational heavy mechanics manufacturing company headquartered in Changsha. As of 2017, the company is the sixth-largest heavy equipment manufacturer in the world. It prides itself on producing and manufacturing some of the world’s best concrete, excavators, hoisting, road, port, machinery and wind turbines. Sany has a dozen industrial parks in China plus manufacturing facilities in Brazil, Germany, India, Indonesia, and the United States. With approximately 90,000 employees worldwide, Sany is a global manufacturer of construction equipment, mining, and port and oil drilling machinery, renewable wind-energy systems, and more. It has built 25 manufacturing bases and over 100 offices with more than 400 agents and 8,000 suppliers worldwide.
Deere & Company is an American company that is widely known for manufacturing agricultural, construction, and forestry mechanisms, diesel engines, drivetrains that are used in heavy equipment, and lawn care equipment. Its global headquarters are in Moline, Illinois, and the company employs about 67,000 people worldwide, half being in the United States and Canada. John Deere is the largest agriculture machinery company in the world and is the second-largest heavy equipment manufacturer in the US. Infamously, John Deere’s license covering the internal software on tractor control computers does not allow users to modify the software. This prevents farmers from doing their own repairs and creates a monopoly for John Deere dealerships. John Deere claims user repair is forbidden by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) through the bypassing of digital rights management. This leads to increased downtime for some rural farmers, as authorized dealerships are sometimes quite far away. Some American farmers reportedly use Ukrainian versions of John Deere software to circumvent restrictions on repair.
JCB is the only UK company on this list. Its market share is around 3% globally, reporting a 2018 revenue of $5.4 billion. Founded after WWII in 1945, it began with building agricultural tipping trailers. JCB is the creator of LiveLink: software that enables operators to remotely manage JCB machinery. JCB is most well known for its excavators, but also manufactures wheeled loaders and a selection of road-building equipment. JCB is mostly seen in the UK and other European markets, but is becoming a growing presence outside of Europe. JCB prides itself on constantly upgrading and reinventing its products in order to meet the changing demands of the 21st-century workplace. JCB currently has 23 factories around the world, including 11 in the UK. India was JCB’s largest market in 2018, with a large factory opening this year in Gujarat. It is positioning itself to be at the forefront of the zero-emissions or ultra-low emissions equipment revolution of the future in the construction industry, particularly on urban job sites.
