We recently prepared a comprehensive report of the 11 Largest Heavy Equipment Manufacturers in the World. In this free report, we have discussed each company in detail. Click here to see the free report.

For context, Heavy-duty equipment is a specific category of machinery used for heavy-duty work, such as construction, forestry, mining, and industrial operations.

The global heavy construction equipment market was at $190.3 billion in 2022 and is estimated to reach $252.4 billion by 2028, at a CAGR of 4.8%. Much of the growth in 2022 in terms of value was led by Asia Pacific, and the industry’s growth in the region is now estimated at a CAGR of 4.9% between 2023 and 2028. This strong market presence is due to the growing mining and infrastructure developments in the region, particularly in China and India.

Moreover, with the rising demand for raw materials to secure energy interest, countries like India and China are actively looking for lithium mines for battery manufacturing, which will promote the increased usage of heavy construction equipment in the Asia Pacific. While the heavy equipment market is growing, there are some challenges faced by the leading manufacturers in the industry.

Within the US, the construction industry is especially seeing an uptick. With multiple roads, bridges, rail, and other infrastructure development projects in the pipeline, the use and demand for heavy-duty machinery is on the rise. On 15th November 2021, the President of the US signed a historic infrastructure bill into law worth $1 trillion. After two years, on November 10th, 2023, the government announced around 40,000 projects worth $400 billion in more than 4,500 communities across the country.

While the heavy equipment market is growing, there are some prominent challenges faced by the leading manufacturers in the industry. For example, since heavy industry is responsible for 30% of the US’s GHG emissions, environmental concerns and regulations have been considered to be one of the major downsides of the heavy construction equipment industry.

In September 2019, Hyundai Construction Equipment Americas Inc. (HCEA) and Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd (HHI), collectively known as “Hyundai,” reached a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Justice. As part of the settlement, Hyundai agreed to pay a $47 million civil penalty for violating Title II of the Clean Air Act. The settlement addressed allegations that Hyundai sold heavy construction vehicles with diesel engines that did not comply with applicable emission standards.

To reduce their carbon footprint and meet the sustainability demand and regulation, heavy equipment manufacturers including key players in the industry, such as Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT), CNH Industrial NV (NYSE:CNH), Deere & Co (NYSE:DE), and Kubota Corp (TYO:6326), are investing massive capital in research and development (R&D) to develop new technologies and more environmentally friendly manufacturing processes.

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT), the largest manufacturer of excavators, has invested more than $30 billion in R&D over the past 20 years to develop the best-in-class innovation. The main focus of these innovations has been autonomy, alternative fuels, connectivity, and digital, and electrification (AACE) — technologies aimed at inflicting less harm to the environment.

Meanwhile, CNH Industrial NV (NYSE:CNH) R&D expenditure reached $866 billion in 2022 and $1.041 billion in 2023. In both years, the R&D expenses were primarily attributable to continued investment in new products, technologies, and digital solutions.

On the other hand, Deere & Co (NYSE:DE), a global leader in manufacturing agricultural machinery, heavy equipment, forestry machinery, and diesel engines, invested nearly $2.2 billion in researching and developing new technology solutions and new product introductions. Out of this investment, substantial costs were related to meeting equipment fuel standards by incorporating technologies that deliver intelligent solutions to their customers through digital capabilities, automation, autonomy, and alternative fuel solutions. At the start of 2023, in January, Deere & Co (NYSE:DE) announced its new development, ExactShot™, which will allow customers to reduce inputs during planting applications, generating cost savings and lowering their environmental footprint.

Another leading company, Kubota Corp (TYO:6326) has budgeted an investment of nearly $3.2 billion in R&D by 2025, targeting mainly three areas — developing technologies for carbon-free power trains, development of smart agriculture and autonomous technologies, and the last area is resource cycling technologies. In FY 2023, Kubota Corp’s capital investment in R&D was nearly $563 million.

Continue reading to find out where these three companies are ranked on the list of the 11 largest heavy equipment manufacturers in the world.

Our Methodology

For our list of the Largest Heavy Equipment Manufacturers in the World, we consulted various sources and articles on the web to compile a pool of the largest and most renowned heavy equipment manufacturers worldwide. To shortlist the largest companies from the list, we ranked the companies by revenue. For accuracy, we have sourced data from each company’s financial reports for the full fiscal year 2023. As a secondary source, we have used data from Yahoo Finance. For one company on the list, data for the fiscal year 2023 was unavailable, which is why we have used data for the 2022 fiscal year. Note that this has only been utilized based on the notion that the 2023 revenue forecast for the company was higher than the actual revenue of FY2022. The list is ranked in ascending order of net sales and revenue of each company.

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The Largest Heavy Equipment Manufacturer in the World

1.  Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT)

Net Sales and Revenue (FY2023): $67,100,000,000 

Caterpillar Inc. is the largest heavy equipment manufacturer in the world as of 2024. Caterpillar Inc. was founded in 1925 when the Holt Manufacturing Company and the C. L. Best Tractor Co. merged to form a new company. Two years later, in 1927, the company introduced its first model — the Model Twenty Tractor. Now nearly a century later, Caterpillar Inc. is the leading company in the heavy equipment industry with more than 300 products.

In 2023, the company posted record sales and revenue of $67.1 billion, which was up by 13% compared with $59.4 billion in 2022. Moreover, adjusted profit per share increased from $13.84 in FY 2022 to $21.21 in 2023.

Reflecting on the year’s performance, the Chairman and CEO of Caterpillar, Jim Umpleby, said,

“I’m very proud of our global team’s strong performance as they achieved the best year in our 98-year history, including record full-year sales and revenues, record adjusted profit per share and record ME&T free cash flow.”

Many people consider Komatsu Ltd (OTCMKTS:KMTUY) to be bigger than the industry giant, Caterpillar, in reality. However, according to our analysis, Komatsu is heavily outranked by Caterpillar.

To check the free full list, please visit the 11 Largest Heavy Equipment Manufacturers in the World.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published on Insider Monkey.