If Vegas were on an episode of Sesame Street last week, the letter of the day would be “C”. ConExpo, Coronavirus, and Concern! However, true to the construction industry and the great people that power it, ConExpo went full steam ahead.
I didn’t get the chance to visit all the booths due to the brevity of the show and the fact that I left early due to travel concerns and Vegas literally starting to close down, but the booths I stopped by had amazing equipment displays and innovation.
Komatsu displayed their WA800-8. An 854HP wheel loader with a bucket capacity up to 16 yards(squared). Bobcat went all out on their battery powered equipment and Linkbelt let you build your own hydraulic excavator, complete with a souvenir t-shirt! Husqvarna attended ConExpo for the first time and had a strong showing with lots of equipment you could demo. Of course, CAT dominated the festival grounds with their operator challenge, and those operators were amazing!
Speaking of amazing operators, SANY had 3 hydraulic excavator operators that put on quite the show along with a fun dance team. There were other Chinese manufacturers (LiuGong, XCMG, ZoomLion, etc.) present who are working hard to bring manufacturing, assembly and/or a presence to the US.
Noticeably missing was JCB. However, they are busy in the UK as they were tasked to retool and start manufacturing ventilators. Could this happen to our US manufacturers? Absolutely, as Trump just signed the Defense Production Act yesterday. If any of you are asked to reprogram the CNC machines, retool and start manufacturing medical equipment, thank you in advance!
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be speaking with some of the industry’s best product managers to learn more about the new products they released or showcased at ConExpo. We’ll also get their take on what they see coming from the industry in the upcoming year and maybe we can get a sneak peak of what’s to come from their company! Follow our company LinkedIn page to catch these interviews.
The world will look different at the next ConExpo in 2023, and we look forward to seeing you there and raising a glass to our wonderful industry and the people that make it great! Best of health to you, your family, and your teams.
