Hitachi Construction Machinery (Europe) NV (HCME) is a subsidiary of Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. (HCM) and was established in 1972 in Oosterhout, The Netherlands. It is responsible for the manufacture, sales and marketing of Hitachi construction equipment throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
History
In 1968, Hitachi appointed Hovers Constructie NV in Tilburg, as exclusive importer of Hitachi's range of construction equipment in the Benelux. In the 1970s the company launched a number of locally designed crawler cranes, which had appeal throughout the world.
In 1972 Hovers Constructie NV went out of business. To continue support of existing customer, HCME was incorporated on April 1, 1972, as the first foreign branch of HCM. Responsible for both the manufacture of locally designed products, as well as the distribution of all HCM product through Europe, Africa and the Middle East, in 1981 the company opened a parts Distribution Center.
In 1986 a production, distribution and marketing partnership for plant machinery was agreed between FIAT and Hitachi began, with the original plan to build a limited range of Hitachi crawler excavators in FIAT's factory in San Mauro, Turin, Italy. In the 1990s, HCME increased production at Oosterhout, starting to produce mini excavators, which with an extension of coverage into