About Doosan
Doosan is a leading global manufacturer of construction equipment and industrial machinery. The South Korean company’s name means “little grains of sand that together make a mountain.” As the owner of Bobcat, Doosan says it has the highest market share in the global compact construction equipment industry, the largest dealer network in North America (more than 1,500), and the greatest number of attachments in the market.
Doosan DX300LCA Crawler Excavator
Origins In The 19th Century
Doosan traces its lineage back to 1896 when Park Seung-Jik opened a store in Seoul and developed Korea’s first modern cosmetic products. Its history in equipment manufacturing began in 1937 in Incheon as Chosun Machine Works, which built Korea’s first large-scale machinery factory.
Many years later, in the 1960s, the company added construction and other machinery to its diversifying portfolio. It produced its first articulated dump truck in the early 1970s and created a construction equipment division in 1977. The firm shipped its first excavator, the DH crawler series, in 1978. That same year it rebranded as Doosan Group, with several more name changes to come.
The Doosan Era
Doosan led off its production of wheel loaders with the DL series in the early 1990s and made its foray into the North American market in 1991. In 2005, Doosan acquired construction machinery manufacturer Daewoo Heavy Industries & Machinery, which had been producing forklifts since 1968, and changed its name to Doosan Infracore.
In 2007, the company acquired Bobcat, the world’s largest supplier of small construction equipment, along with other business divisions from Ingersoll Rand US. Doosan Infracore spun off its forklift business as Doosan Industrial Vehicle in 2011.
In 2019, Doosan performed the industry’s first successful live demonstration of fully autonomous construction equipment. Its Concept-X solution included a drone, wheel loader, excavator, and articulated dump truck all working together autonomously.
Doosan developed autonomous forklifts for the logistics industry and the Max Control system for remote operation of Bobcat skid steers up to 300 feet (100 meters) away via a phone app.
Hyundai Heavy Industries acquired Doosan Infracore in 2021, although not its majority stake in Doosan Bobcat. In 2023 the company unveiled the world’s first fully electric compact track loader (with no hydraulics), the quiet yet powerful Bobcat T7X. In 2023, Hyundai Doosan Infracore changed its name to Develon, short for “Develop Onward.”
Doosan Machinery Production
As of the early 2020s, Doosan Industrial Vehicle produces forklifts and warehouse equipment such as pallet trucks, stackers, tow tractors, reach trucks, and order pickers. Doosan Portable Power, meanwhile, manufactures generators, air compressors, and vibratory plate compactors.
As Develon, the former Hyundai Doosan Infracore produces wheel loaders, crawler and wheel excavators, mini excavators, articulated dump trucks, and various compact construction equipment. Attachments made by Develon include many types of buckets, grapples, hydraulic quick couplers, pallet forks, dozer dual blades, and rippers.
Doosan also owns Geith, a maker of excavator attachments.
Find The Right Doosan Construction Equipment
Among the new and used Doosan equipment for sale on MachineryTrader.com are wheel loaders, excavators, off-highway trucks, forklifts, generators, air compressors, light towers, and more for sale. Popular models include Doosan DL250 wheel loaders, DX140 excavators, DA30 off-highway trucks, G25 forklifts, and C185 air compressors.
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