Komatsu equipment are said to be the most trusted and reliable equipment and perhaps this is why after Caterpillar, they are the second largest producer of construction equipment in the world. The company makes more than 70% of its income by selling equipments pertaining to mining and construction. The equipment they sell comprises of hydraulic excavators, bulldozers, motor graders, dump trucks etc. Thus, Komatsu are into almost all heavy equipments. However, they have not limited themselves to manufacturing construction equipments. They also have their hands in producing electronic items like silicon wafers and polycrystalline silicon. They seem to earn around 7% of their revenue by producing these electronic items. Thus Komatsu are multi producers and have their hands on ample of stuffs which prove them as market leaders as far as construction and mining equipments are concerned.

Komatsu came into existence in the year 1921, when the ironworks parted their ways from the mining company and thus formed a new company. The founder of Komatsu was Tashiro Shiraishi who was an engineer by profession and also became the first president of the company until 1925. During his tenure, the company became a major producer of pumps and equipment tools. As a matter of fact, Tashiro Shiraishi gave the company the much needed momentum and drove it to a stable position form where it accelerated and became a mighty business house.

The saga of its growth can be easily analyzed by the number of workers that kept on increasing on a constant basis. The number of employees had risen dramatically from 121 in 1921 to 742 in 1929 which is a big achievement in itself. It particularly depicts the fact that employees working in the company were happy and the work culture that the company formed only helped its employees to grow.

In 1960, Komatsu equipments were in huge demand especially during the Vietnam War and it expanded like a jet. During the end of the decade, it introduced a new radio-controlled bulldozer which was termed to be a major achievement. At that time, they had Caterpillar as their major competitor and they chalked out many plan to surpass them. They keenly started monitoring the performance of Caterpillar and laid their strategies with the view to outshine them in the near future. Their way of strategizing the work and setting up priorities helped them a long way in achieving their goals and becoming a successful company within a short span. They expanded their operations very aggressively and within 20 years they grew from a local producer to a giant exporter and a strong competitor.

It was only in the year 1970 that the company started its first direct investment in USA. Soon after that, operations in other foreign lands began and in the year 1975, it started manufacturing bulldozers in Brazil making it the first production of construction equipment outside its homeland. Since then, there has been no looking back for Komatsu and slowly it expanded its operations in many other foreign countries. Komatsu has no longer been a domestic name. It has now been transformed and has become a symbol of quality, reliability and efficiency.