Sumitomo

Used Sumitomo Plant Machinery

Sumitomo Heavy Industries are a Japanese conglomerate which is well known for their range of construction equipment, including excavators and asphalt pavers. With locations and operations in the United States of America (Where their excavators are interestingly branded as Link-Belt excavators…) Africa, the Middle East, Asia and also the Oceanic regions of Australia and New Zealand, Sumitomo have quite a lot in the way of global dealings.
With a series of small and medium excavators sold within these regions, if you step outside of the UK (where Sumitomo very interestingly have a partnership with our very own JCB, forming JCB-SCM Limited as their entry into the European Market) you’ll likely see a lot of Sumitomo products in use. Their products vary by region, though the company are known to manufacture small, medium and large excavators with varying swing radius.
Sumitomo had a rather modest start as a company that was formed to provide equipment repair services to the Besshi Copper Mine within Japan’s Ehime Prefecture. As the Besshi Copper Mine produced well over 700,000 tonnes of copper, it massively contributed to Japan’s trade and modernisation in 1888 onward. The company got its name from the Sumitomo family, which were charged with the management of this mine.
As Japan entered a period of huge growth, the company flourished with the manufacture of multiple-purpose machinery for the steel and transportation industries. In 1969, Sumitomo merged with a competitor, Uraga Heavy Industries, and to this day continues to grow. Interestingly, the company is credited for the manufacture of the Seawise Giant – an (aptly titled) Ultra Large Crude Carrier (ULCC) supertanker – which to this day is the largest and longest ship that has ever been manufactured.
Otherwise, Sumitomo is very well known for their production of hydraulic truck cranes, which started in 1970, and in 2002 purchased Niigata Iron Works Limited to start the production of asphalt finishers.