Still hand-building after all these years

In 1930, the company now known as Kobelco created Japan’s first electric mining shovel.

This machine paved the way for all future Kobelco machinery and set the tone for decades of technological development.

However, the company says that despite its growth over the past 80-plus years, it has remained committed to a single focus on excavator excellence and its use of high-quality components and manufacturing processes has not changed.

Today, its Itsukaichi factory in Japan plays a key role as the production base for Kobelco excavators used throughout the world and all its heavy excavators for Europe are hand-built there.

“By hand-building every Kobelco machine, we can look more closely at our processes and improve and refine them,” said Naokaki Inaba from the production division of the Itsukaichi manufacturing section.

“This helps us to continually produce the highest quality excavators possible.”