Research and development

Fuel consumption is the biggest concern today for the earthmoving industry according to Kazuhiko Sasaki, who is responsible for marketing and sales for Sumitomo in the Asia Pacifi c, Middle East and African regions.

He said this is due to the “tremendous price of diesel across the world.”

The other main concern is excavator productivity Mr Sasaki added.

In order to increase productivity the company invests a lot of time and money into researching operator comfort, “simply because we believe if we can develop an environmentally and operator friendly machine – that may contribute to the joy of the operator's work and that may directly link to his productivity,” Mr Sasaki said.

The company manufactures hydraulic excavators for global markets and although it does not supply machines to China, Mr Sasaki said the current boom for excavators in China as well as in India is having a positive impact on Sumitomo territories.