Big losers in Japan were China-related companies, such as construction-equipment maker Komatsu Ltd.
Yet relatively few of them were sold by the big multinationals like Komatsu or Caterpillar.
Through July, Doosan, Komatsu, Hitachi, Hyundai and Caterpillar accounted for 75% of excavator sales.
FORBES: The Battle For China's Construction-Machinery Market
How should Cat, Komatsu and the other global leaders prepare for Chinese competition overseas?
Masayuki Komatsu led Japan's whaling negotiations until his retirement from the fisheries ministry three years ago.
Only a handful of Chinese employees at Komatsu's 100%-owned Shanghai affiliate have access to sensitive China data.
Komatsu (TSE: 6301) (ADR: KMTUY) is the second largest global construction equipment company, after Caterpillar.
An Tai Bao, which is run solely by Chinese managers, has become an emblem of Komatsu prowess in China.
China buys a fifth of its excavators from Komatsu, only 15% from Caterpillar.
Those with below-average solvency ratios included household names such as Komatsu, Mitsubishi Electric, Mitsui, Toshiba, Sony and Fuji Photo.
In 1995 he did a two-year stint managing Komatsu America's Chattanooga, Tennessee plant, building excavators designed to steal business away.
Komatsu, of The University of Texas at Austin, et al. received a total of 564 citations during the year.
This impacted Caterpillar and other companies such as Komatsu and Sany Heavy that operate in the Chinese construction industry.
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Key customers include truck and industrial vehicle makers such as PACCAR, Volvo Trucks North America, Daimler Trucks North America, Chrysler and Komatsu.
Cat's home market accounts for better than 40% of its sales, versus only a fifth in long dormant Japan for Komatsu.
Much of the equipment Komatsu sells in China is manufactured at its U.S. plant in Peoria, Illinois--two miles away from Cat's headquarters.
Unlike its larger rival, Komatsu has no equipment parked outside its dealerships.
Other security analysts in New York, Chicago and Tokyo will be studying the responses by Cat, Komatsu and others to new Chinese competition.
Komatsu has been one of the most successful Japanese companies (indeed, global companies) in the China market and in other strategically vital Asian markets.
Last year was difficult for Komatsu with net profit down 24.4%.
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The toughest challenge is establishing networks of dealers in the U.S., Europe and other parts of the world, as Caterpillar and Komatsu did long ago.
Helping Komatsu persuade the mine operator to switch was a new drive system that instead of the conventional mechanical axle and cogs uses rear-wheel-mounted electrical motors.
Introduced to tackle machine theft, it has helped turn Komatsu into the biggest foreign supplier of excavators and dump trucks to China's booming construction and mining companies.
Pylantis makes a new plastic using plants, clay and other material, developed over more than 10 years by Michio Komatsu, a pioneer in plastic injection molding.
Among individual stocks, Japan's Komatsu rose 2 percent after the heavy machinery maker said it will start selling automatic bulldozers in North America in June, Kyodo News reported.
In the early 2000s, "there were plenty of minke whales in Antarctica, in the Northern Hemisphere, and the production rate is so quick compared with other animals, " Komatsu says.
Even so, Sany officials say they aim to turn their company into the world's biggest maker of construction equipment, eclipsing the current leader, Caterpillar, and No. 2, Komatsu Ltd.
And through the 1980s and the 1990s, I rooted for the company as it battled the United Auto Workers and the unions for control, and Komatsu of Japan for global leadership.
In the construction equipment sector, Komatsu is the flagship.
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