Volvo Construction Equipment (originally
Volvo BM) is a
subsidiaryA subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...
and business area of
AB VolvoAB Volvo is a Swedish builder of commercial vehicles, including trucks, buses and construction equipment. Volvo also supplies marine and industrial drive systems, aerospace components and financial services...
. Volvo Construction Equipment develops, manufactures and markets equipment for the
constructionIn the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...
and related industries.
Overview
Volvo CE's product leaders in many world markets include a comprehensive range of wheel loaders, wheeled and crawler hydraulic
excavatorExcavators are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, stick, bucket and cab on a rotating platform . The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. A cable-operated excavator uses winches and steel ropes to accomplish the movements. They are a natural progression from the...
s (aka diggers),
articulated haulerAn articulated hauler is a type of dump truck used to transport loads over rough terrain. The vehicle usually have all-wheel drive and consists of two basic units, one generally called the tractor and the rear section, called the hauler or trailer section, which contains the dump body...
s (aka dumpers), motor
graderA grader, also commonly referred to as a road grader, a blade, a maintainer, or a motor grader, is a construction machine with a long blade used to create a flat surface. Typical models have three axles, with the engine and cab situated above the rear axles at one end of the vehicle and a third...
s,
backhoe loaderA backhoe loader, also called a loader backhoe, digger, or colloquially shortened to backhoe, is a heavy equipment vehicle that consists of a tractor fitted with a shovel/bucket on the front and a small backhoe on the back...
s, skid steer
loadersA loader is a heavy equipment machine often used in construction, primarily used to load material into or onto another type of machinery .-Heavy equipment front loaders:A loader A loader is a heavy equipment machine often used in construction, primarily used to load material (such as asphalt,...
, as well as mini and compact excavators,
skid steersA skid loader or skid steer loader is a small rigid frame, engine-powered machine with lift arms used to attach a wide variety of labor-saving tools or attachments. Though sometimes they are equipped with tracks, skid-steer loaders are typically four-wheel drive vehicles with the left-side drive...
, and
wheel loadersA loader is a heavy equipment machine often used in construction, primarily used to load material into or onto another type of machinery .-Heavy equipment front loaders:A loader A loader is a heavy equipment machine often used in construction, primarily used to load material (such as asphalt,...
, pipelayers, demolition equipment, waste handlers and scraper haulers. Volvo Construction Equipment has production facilities in Sweden, Germany, China, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, India, and Poland. With the purchase of Ingersoll Rand, Volvo acquired a Road Construction facility in Pennsylvania, their only presence in the United States. The company offers worldwide service and spare-part distribution as well as a wide range of attachments.
Volvo Construction Equipment mainly distributes its machines through independent dealers and, in parallel with their rental program, to customers in more than 200
countriesA country is a region legally identified as a distinct entity in political geography. A country may be an independent sovereign state or one that is occupied by another state, as a non-sovereign or formerly sovereign political division, or a geographic region associated with a previously...
. Principal Volvo products for the rental centers include the company’s comprehensive line of compact excavators, skid steers, and backhoe loaders.
The corporation's equipment rental arm,
Volvo Rents, began its equipment
franchisingFranchising is the practice of using another firm's successful business model. The word 'franchise' is of anglo-French derivation - from franc- meaning free, and is used both as a noun and as a verb....
initiative in 2001. The company now has nearly 90 equipment rental centers—mostly in North America—and continues to expand its operations in Europe with rental centers in
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
and
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. As part of the Volvo acquisition of Ingersoll Rand road machinery, approximately 30 former "Ingersoll Rand Equipment Stores" have been transitioned to "Volvo Construction Equipment & Services" locations that will sell, rent and support road machinery, compact equipment, and material handling products, such as milling equipment, pavers, compactors, tack distributors, road wideners and material transfer vehicles. In 2008, Volvo formed "Volvo Construction Equipment & Services California," from the IRES and recently acquired "Mathews Machinery" locations based in California.
History
In 1950, AB Volvo bought the machine manufacturer
Bolinder-MunktellAB Bolinder-Munktell was a tractor and machines manufacturer founded in Eskilstuna, Sweden in 1932 through the merger of the mechanical companies Bolinder and Munktell...
(BM). In 1973, the company name was changed to Volvo BM AB. During the 1980s and 1990s, a number of American, European and Asian construction equipment manufacturers were purchased. In 1995, the name was changed to Volvo Construction Equipment. Up until 1985 Volvo BM also produced
tractorA tractor is a vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery used in agriculture or construction...
s and other agricultural machines; the tractor manufacturing division was sold to
Valmet' was a Finnish state-owned conglomerate. Valmet was formed in 1951, when the state of Finland decided to group their various factories working on war reparations to the Soviet Union under one company...
in 1985.
For more information see the Volvo Construction Equipment global history site:
http://www.volvo.com/constructionequipment/corporate/en-gb/AboutUs/history/introduction.htm
In February 2007, Volvo announced it had agreed to buy the road construction equipment division of Ingersoll-Rand for $1.3 billion in cash to re-enter the Road Construction market.
The unit manufactures and sells asphalt paving equipment, compaction equipment, milling machines and construction-related material handling equipment and generated net revenues of approximately $850 million for 2006. The sale includes manufacturing facilities in Pennsylvania, Germany, China and India, as well as 20 distribution and service facilities in the U.S. The business employs approximately 2,000 people worldwide.
On December 11, 2009, Volvo announced that it would close its manufacturing facility in Asheville, NC on or before March 31, 2010; resulting in the loss of 228 jobs, and the lack of any construction equipment facilities in the United States outside of Road Machinery. The products built at the Asheville Plant, including wheel loaders and crawler excavators, were transferred to Volvo manufacturing facilities in South Korea and Sweden.
On January 13, 2010, Volvo announced that it would invest 65 million SEK to begin producing crawler excavators in Brazil, taking advantage of government run, low financing options for products built in country.
Beginning in 2010, Volvo announced its new focus entitled "Fit for the Future". Key initiatives include focusing growth and expansion in the "BRIC" countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China). The new focus is set to run through 2012.
See also
- Heavy equipment
- Euclid Trucks
The Euclid Company of Ohio was a company specialized in heavy equipment for earthmoving, namely dump trucks and wheel tractor-scrapers, that operated from the United States of America from the 1920s to the 1950s, then it was purchased and converted into a section of General Motors and later on by...
– dump trucks (company taken over by Volvo)
- Bolinder-Munktell
AB Bolinder-Munktell was a tractor and machines manufacturer founded in Eskilstuna, Sweden in 1932 through the merger of the mechanical companies Bolinder and Munktell...