The largest manufacturers of heavy construction equipment are located in the United States, Japan, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. Whereas the second largest and less competitive manufacturers of heavy construction equipment are found in Canada, China, Russia, Latin America, South Korea, Italy, Belgium and Sweden. Yet this position can shift easily with today’s ever changing market trends and with developing countries being able to attract heavy construction equipment manufacturers by offering low material and labor costs.

The global demand of heavy construction equipment is widespread and on a large-scale of production with almost thirty percent entering the foreign market every year. This market has been defined by the major flows among the already developed countries and by the large-scale importing by the developing countries with little domestic production.

Next to the United States, Japan has been the dominant net exporter of heavy construction equipment with Germany and the United Kingdom following close behind. The United States is also a major importer of heavy construction equipment, importing in ample amounts and running a moderate sized trade surplus. In a developing world and given the variety of construction equipment prevailing in major geographic regions and even in individual countries, it’s typical for heavy construction equipment to find some use by private contractors and public agencies as well. Purchasing used heavy equipment is also an option.

Production designs and manufacturing technology for heavy construction equipment are well established and are making advances on a regular basis. Tractors, loaders, mixers, cranes , excavators and other heavy construction equipment containing automatic transmissions, electric controls, engine monitoring systems and many can now be programmed to repeat the same cycles. Other advances to enhance operator comfort are air conditioned cabs, tilting steering wheels and noise reduction devices.

The global heavy construction equipment industry primarily consists of almost one thousand companies, with smaller businesses specializing in small equipment, e.g. parts and attachments. Some of the major manufacturers include: Caterpillar, Komatsu, Case, Volvo, Deere, New Holland and Hitachi. All heavy construction equipment manufacturers must plan strategically and decide whether their company will continue to expand and stay strong or whether their company should draw back, perhaps sell out and abandon the industry. These decisions have many companies choosing to form partnerships with other companies as an effort to flourish and continue on, as Caterpillar had fused with New Holland to form CNH, Inc. The emphasis is on cost-cutting, competitiveness and down sizing.

There is an increased emphasis on research and development, making the manufacturers of heavy construction equipment seek a competitive edge in many ways. With Caterpillar and Komatsu, for example, being two of the leading producers and spending the most on research and development by using computer design along with manufacturer systems. As technology develops, all major manufacturers of heavy construction equipment will find new and improved way to test and improve their products to stay one step ahead in the competition.

In today’s world, more businesses in the construction industry are finding it more financially beneficial to their businesses to aquire used construction equipment and used heavy construction equipment, when compared to buying them brand new. Most business managers prefer the low capitial investment when buying top quality used construction equipment at exceptional prices. Smaller construction companies are also finding it more beneficial to buy quality used construction equipment because of the low initial price and operating costs. These smaller companies are more able to keep an eye on how the used machines are maintained, so the machines are always in top quality working condition.

Rock and Dirt has one of the largest selections of new and used construction equipment throughout the U.S. As one of the leading companies, Rock and Dirt offers new and used construction equipment for sale and for rent. Offering a wide line machinery from dump trucks to excavators from all the major manufacturers,e.g. Caterpillar, Bobcat, John Deere, Case, New Holland, Volvo and Hitachi. All new and used construction equipment is available for direct sale, rent, or auction.

Headwater Equipment Sales in Southern Alberta Canada was founded in 1997 dedicated to providing customers with quality machinery that looks good, runs well and sold at a fair price. Headwater Equipment is currently dealing mostly in late models of Caterpillar, John Deere and Hitachi construction equipment. This company has enlisted a large crew of licensed mechanics, welders and painters with over 25 years of experience in general construction, repair and construction equipment maintenance of used construction equipment and other machinery. Selling more than just used construction equipment, Headwater also offers quality used parts and attachments for sale at fair prices. All used machinery, parts and accessories are cleaned and thoroughly inspected prior to every sale.

Iron Planet, founded in 1999 in Pleasanton, California has grown to be the third-largest auction company in the U.S. that specializes in a wide range of used construction equipment and trucks. Companies, as well as independent contractors, can choose used construction equipment from a full line of the top manufacturers. All used construction equipment are subject to a detailed inspection to assess the equipments actual condition. These inspections are presented free of charge for all potential customers to review before bidding on equipment. All inspections are performed by over 350 professional inspectors with an average of 23 years of heavy equipment experience and who follow a standardized and reliable method of inspection.

There are many good used construction equipment companies materializing across the U.S. and Canada, distributing used construction equipment throughout the world, through auctions, buying and selling. Through these companies you can find a great deal on used construction equipment, to rent, buy out right or to bid on. Through these same companies, you can also sell your own equipment for a reasonable fee and have your own used construction equipment available to buyers and bidders throughout the world.

When buying equipment for your business, there are several steps you would take. First you’d most likely consider your needs and your budget… then follow that up with some online research. Next you visit a few showrooms to compare models; and then you stress over the advantages of long-term leasing versus purchasing outright, and weighing cash-outlay and amortization issues. It can become one big headache. But it doesn’t have to. Because when you’re looking into purchasing equipment for your business, there’s one option you should never overlook: used machinery.

You can get good-quality used machinery for a fraction of what it would cost to buy new. From backhoes, bulldozers, forklifts or other construction equipment to grinders, compressors and lathes, purchasing surplus machinery can be a smart business decision. Aside from your lower initial cost, you don’t run into the depreciation issues new-equipment buyers face. Let’s fact it: As soon as they drive that shiny new backhoe off the lot, the nearly $80,000 they’ve laid out for that brand-new equipment just doesn’t seem worth it, considering the backhoe’s depreciation value.Purchasing pre-owned or surplus equipment makes sense – especially if you run a small business and don’t have excess capital. You need to get the job done, without spending a lot of money.

Plus, with used machines, you get the added bonus of getting to speak with the previous owner or equipment broker, to find out about the machine’s functionality and its service history. A broker can also provide a “condition report” from a field-specific technician who has personally inspected the equipment for purposes of documenting its condition.

Often, as companies grow, their production needs sometimes outstrip their equipment’s capabilities. That means bringing in machinery to accommodate extra output… so their existing equipment – which is still in perfect working order – is no longer needed. Nowadays, with the availability of just about anything you could want at your fingertips, courtesy of the Internet, surplus machinery is no exception. Type “used machinery sales” into Google and you’ll end up with 256,000 results. Well, that’s great, but how do you know you’re getting a piece of quality machinery from a reputable dealer?

That’s where a broker comes into play. A commissioned broker helps you safely navigate the waters of used-machinery procurement without getting gobbled up by circling sharks. A broker brings buyers and sellers together. And a broker earns no payment until the sale (one that satisfies the buyer and the seller) takes place. The buyer pays broker’s fee, as a percentage of the final price – just as an auction house gets a percentage for its services.

The used-machinery brokering experts at Greasy Machines work to match owners with prospective buyers who are looking for a particular piece of equipment. They currently have in excess of sixty different categories of used equipment available for sale.

Heavy equipment can satisfy your construction needs in the form of brand new heavy machinery, used heavy duty equipment or even leasing or renting. You can also have the satisfaction of knowing that your heavy equipment has been tested to ensure that it is of high quality and will be safe for you to use. If you are looking for heavy equipment for sale, you have come to the right place! We don’t sell heavy equipment, but we can tell you about several companies that do and even about heavy equipment operation, safety standards, training and more.

There are several trustworthy companies that offer used heavy equipment for sale. Here is information about a few of these heavy equipment companies, including Caterpillar, John Deere and Volvo.

Caterpillar offers heavy duty equipment. Cat makes sure that Cat equipment is of the highest quality. They thoroughly inspect each piece of used heavy equipment and categorize it according to several different grades of quality. The highest levels are only available through a licensed Cat dealer.

John Deere also has an excellent array of heavy equipment for sale. John Deere offers world-class customer service for each piece of heavy machinery.

Finally, Volvo has all kinds of heavy-duty equipment! They make sure that all the heavy construction and concrete equipment they sell is certified. This means that Volvo rigorously inspects piece of heavy machinery to ensure that it meets high standards of performance and safety.

The one market, which will allow you to make big money and that is quite easily done, is the heavy equipments market. But then you need to do a lot of research to study the market before plunging into it. Through some research, you will find that there are two methods of getting heavy equipment:

1.  You may buy the equipment by visiting local auctions, where you can buy good quality heavy machinery at great low prices.

2.  You can also find this type of equipment on the Internet, and eliminate the auction and get the machinery delivered to your doorstep.

When you are ready to make a business with heavy construction equipment, you should also be aware of the expense that is incurred in regards to heavy construction equipment. Although the profits are great, you will want to insure that the profit justifies the enormous expense of buying this heavy equipment.

Machines like skid steers and especially backhoes, wheel loaders, excavators and bulldozer’s are the most bought heavy construction equipment. So it needs only common sense to buy these machines and rent them out. This is a good business from which one can make huge profits.

Caterpillar, the world leader in construction equipment, is having trouble making deeper tracks in China. The U.S.-based manufacturer of tractors, backhoe loaders, road graders, and other devices began selling equipment in China in 1975, a year before the death of Chairman Mao. As the Chinese government invested massively in infrastructure, Caterpillar helped pave the way, literally, for economic growth and modernization in the world’s fastest-growing market for construction equipment.

Like many foreign players in any number of industries, Caterpillar got its start in China by selling goods to the Chinese government—the only possible customer before the era of economic reform—and then began selling high-quality equipment and heavy machines to the private sector as a premium segment of the market emerged. But it never broadened its focus to include other segments, and by the early 2000s, Komatsu, Hitachi, Daewoo, and other competitors from Japan and Korea were in the middle market with tools and equipment that cost less but were still reliable. Meanwhile, a tranche of local machine manufacturers that had previously been focused only on the low end of the market were burrowing up to battle the established players, designing and releasing their own products targeted squarely at middle-market consumers.

As the experiences of Caterpillar and other multinationals suggest, a critical new battleground is emerging for companies seeking to establish, sustain, or expand their presence in China: It’s the “good-enough” market segment, home of reliable-enough products at low-enough prices to attract the cream of China’s fast-growing cohort of midlevel consumers.

Many companies and contractors in need of acquiring new or used construction equipment often don’t have the financial resources needed to buy the construction equipment outright, unless it is a large corporation or some branch of the government. This is when the option of renting or leasing construction equipment comes into play. Deciding to rent or lease often depends on what the contractor or business manager feels most comfortable doing from a financial perspective after evaluating the many possibilities and deciding what suits their need from long term leasing to short term renting. The side of construction equipment rentals has met a positive growth since 2004, where nearly 50% of construction equipment dealers’ are offering heavy equipment rentals as part of their operation.

There are two ways most companies acquire their construction equipment, renting or leasing. Many contractors or business managers viewed renting or leasing as an opportunity to test out construction equipment at no extra cost and with no strings attached with the possibility of buying. Most often the rental would be converted into a purchase to avoid losing the invested equity. Most buyers would also take into account whether their business is flourishing or floundering, before committing to buying any construction equipment. In a case where a business has an uncertain future, the potential buyers may deem renting as the best way economically and then return the construction equipment to its owner when the job is done.

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) is the international trade and business development resource for companies that manufacture equipment, products and services used worldwide in the construction, agricultural, mining, forestry, and utility fields. The AEM has conducted a survey that predicted that in the near future, more construction equipment buyers will turn to the Internet for product purchases; as construction equipment buyers increasingly turn to the Internet for transactions, information and support.

Consequently, the rise of on-line auctions, sales, renting and leasing are made available by a variety of merchants who cater to the needs of companies and contractors worldwide. On-line merchants such as: Machine Mart, Rock & Dirt, Machinery Trader, Iron Planet, Contractors Hotline, etc. are only a few of the leading markets where companies and contractors alike can find nearly every piece of construction equipment they are looking for, from the top manufacturers such as Caterpillar and John Deere to many more. Many of these merchants offer the options of buying, selling, renting and leasing of new and used construction equipment to parts service and repair and machine maintenance. It’s always wise to investigate the background of any merchant before you place a bid or purchase any construction equipment, to ensure a good reputable stand point before entering into a contract with any dealer or merchant. It’s always wise to shop around and compare deals on construction equipment to other offers before committing to any deal.

If you were fascinated with big trucks and other heavy equipment right from the time when you were a kid and have still not lost your appetite for big machines, then a heavy equipment operators’ career is certainly your best bet. By doing so, you will not only get to live your childhood dreams but will also be able to earn a decent package since the demand for heavy equipment operators has increased dramatically in the last few years.

The operators’ course

For becoming a heavy equipment operator, you will be required to pass a certification course that is available at both the school and college levels. During the certification, you will receive both theoretical and practical training covering all the associated topics such as basic fundamentals, advanced technicalities, and the repair and maintenance of different types of heavy equipment. Other topics that are most likely to be discussed may include engineering, applied math, safety and volume computations. After passing the certification exam, you will be issued a license that will make you legally eligible to operate bulldozers, backhoes, scrapers, track hoes, wheelloaders and graders etc., in maintenance and construction fields.

job prospects
Not many operator-training schools offer direct placements, but you need not worry because there are plenty of jobs available. If your performance is good enough, you can easily make a career in any of the fields listed below:

. Heavy Equipment Mechanics: In this job, you will basically be required to undertake routine repair and replacement works as might be necessary to keep the big machines in a running and ’safe to operate’ condition.

. Mobile Heavy Equipment Operator: In this job, you will be required to operate mobile heavy equipment machines that are often deployed by wholesale leasing and distribution firms, federal and local governments, and large construction and mining companies.