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From January 2001 until December 2013, machines made by Kobelco in Japan were sold outside of Asia by Axis Capital Group, Singapore. For the past year, though, Kobelco has been rebuilding its own sales and service operations in Jakarta Indonesia, North America, Europe, South America, the Middle East, Africa, and the CIS countries. The new SK 260SRNLC-3 Kobelco excavator, as seen at Bauma 2013. Bauma 2013 delivered an efficient launch pad for the Kobelco to reestablish itself to the world market and avoid misrepresentation. Excavators are most often highlighted by manufacturers in some shade of yellow. Kobelco is dissimilar and at Bauma 2103 it prompted us what blue excavators look like, when it showed a new 26-tonne excavator, the short radius SK260SRNLC-3. In November 2013 Kobelco Construction Machinery Europe unlocked a new facility in Almere in the Netherlands, to work as headquarters for development across Europe, the Middle-East, Africa and CIS. It comprises a training center and a 4,000m2 replacement parts warehouse. “We are very much excited to directly serve our customers once again after 10 years. This new office will strengthen our brand and presence as a leading construction equipment manufacturer,” said managing director Makoto Kato. “Our staff will be able to interact more closely with our customers and gain deeper knowledge of the needs of each local market. Not only will this allow us to react more effectively, it will also help us to further develop products that will better meet the local market requirements.” He also added his gratitude to all the positive reviews. Latest product development from Kobelco is a new 21-tonne crawler excavator in both standard and narrow-track version, the SK210LC-9 and SK210NLC-9. Matched to the prior SK200-8 series, which they substitute, the new machines can shift up to 17.3% more soil per litre of fuel, Kobelco factory tests designate. This is for the reason that they not just have a new fuel-efficient Hino JO5E-T5J turbocharged engine that undergoes Europe’s Stage IIIB emissions regulations, they also have a new Eco operating mode, in addition to Heavy and Standard. Even in Heavy operating mode, a 4.7% productivity development is demanded. Kobelco also has a 26-tonne and a 35-tonne model – SK260LC-9 and SK350LC-9 – which are also both available in narrow version. According to its website, the SK500LC-9 (50-tonne) and SK850LC-2 (85-tonne) are in development and will be available soon. In its compact series Kobelco offers a one tonner and a 1.6 tonner, with four further models up to 5.5 tonne coming soon. “We couldn’t be more pleased with the early results of our brand relaunch,” said Pete Morita, president and CEO of Kobelco Construction Machinery USA. “In just a short time period we’ve hired some of the industry’s most qualified personnel, opened our temporary headquarters and parts warehouse and partnered with our dealers to provide quality, competitively priced products. All of these initiatives are just the beginning of what we have planned for the North American marketplace.”