HD Hyundai aims for world’s No. 5 spot in construction machinery

HD Hyundai Co., a South Korean shipbuilding and machinery conglomerate, is making big bets on Europe and South America to achieve its goal of seizing the fifth-largest share in the global construction and equipment market by 2025.

HD Hyundai Construction Equipment Co. and HD Hyundai Infracore Co. have showcased their latest construction and mining machinery lineup at M&T Expo, the largest construction and mining trade fair in South America held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, between April 23 and 26, 2024.

The two Korean construction machinery manufacturers are subsidiaries of HD Hyundai XiteSolution Co., an intermediate construction equipment holding company under HD Hyundai.

They jointly accounted for the second largest share in the South American market for excavators and wheel loaders, following global top Caterpillar Inc.

As the mining industry is booming in Latin America, they displayed new special equipment and big-sized construction equipment models needed in building mine infrastructure.

Demand for mine construction equipment and large construction machinery for raw material development has been on a steady rise in natural resource-rich Brazil, Chile, Mexico and other Latin American countries.

By winning more orders from the region, HD Hyundai hopes to rise to become the world’s No. 5 construction equipment manufacturer with its two construction equipment subsidiaries.

HD Hyundai Infracore ranked 19th in the global construction equipment market with $3.7 billion in construction equipment sales in 2023, while HD Hyundai Construction Equipment ranked 23rd with $2.7 billion, according to KHL, a UK-based construction information group.

The top global construction equipment seller was Caterpillar with $37.5 billion.

TARGET EUROPE WITH COMPACT CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT

At M&T Expo, HD Hyundai Infracore presented a 22-ton log loader, an 80-ton excavator and a heavy dump truck, while HD Hyundai Construction Equipment introduced motor graders.

HD Hyundai Infracore is also taking part in Intermat 2024, one of the world’s three largest construction equipment trade fairs, at the Paris-Nord Villepinte in France, the gateway to the European construction equipment market, from April 24 to 27.

It has introduced its new brand Develon in Europe at the show. The brand’s autonomous solution Concept-X 2.0 has made its European debut, while other 1-10 ton mini excavator models and compact track loaders are on display.

As demand for compact construction equipment is high in Europe, the company pins high hopes on its new compact models and the new brand for HD Hyundai’s rise to the world’s No. 5 spot.

The Korean construction machinery siblings’ global tours have come after their parent announced in December plans to build an integrated equipment manufacturing platform for the duo’s flagship models and launch their integrated sales and parts procurement networks globally.

Their platform and system integration is expected to create synergy, cut costs and enhance price competitiveness so they can better compete with global top-tier manufacturers such as Caterpillar.

Before the announcement, the two companies often competed for the same or similar markets since their parent company took over Infracore from Doosan Group in 2021.

After the acquisition, HD Hyundai changed the company’s name to Hyundai Doosan Infracore and again relaunched as HD Hyundai Infracore with a new equipment brand name, Develon, early last year.

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim at khk@hankyung.com

Sookyung Seo edited this article.