Top 5 Construction Equipment Brands in Canada

The construction equipment brands you see most on Canadian job sites? Caterpillar, Komatsu, Hitachi, Volvo, and John Deere. Between them they build the heavy machinery that does the actual work, the excavators, bulldozers, wheel loaders, backhoe loaders, and skid steers. Here is who they are, what each one makes, and how to finance their equipment in Canada.

None of this gear is cheap, which is exactly why so many contractors lease or finance it rather than buy outright. It is also a sizeable slice of the economy. As Statistics Canada reports, “The commercial and industrial machinery and equipment rental and leasing industry generated $17.5 billion in operating revenue in 2023, up 8.5% from 2022.” (Statistics Canada).

Caterpillar (CAT)

Start with the big one. Caterpillar, CAT to everyone in the trade, runs in more than 90 countries and ranks among the largest construction and mining equipment makers anywhere. The roots go back to 1925, when Benjamin Holt's tractor outfit became the Caterpillar Tractor Company. Why the name? Holt's early crawlers churned along on treads that looked, to someone watching, a bit like a caterpillar. These days the CAT lineup is enormous: motor graders, excavators, wheel loaders, backhoe loaders, skid steers, forklifts, crawler tractors. Putting one on your fleet is a serious cost, so construction equipment financing or heavy equipment leasing usually carries the load.

Komatsu Limited

Then there is Komatsu, the Tokyo-based heavyweight that trails only Caterpillar by most counts. It did not start in construction at all. Founded in 1921, the company came up through farm machinery before it ever touched an excavator. Now it builds excavators, wheel loaders, bulldozers, forklifts, cranes, and draglines, and it quietly supplies the material handling systems and undercarriage parts that keep heavy trucks and trailers rolling.

Hitachi Construction Machinery

Hitachi Construction Machinery, another Tokyo name, made its reputation on excavators. It launched that line in the 1980s and has stayed near the front of it ever since. The parent company is far older, dating to 1910, back when it built mining gear and generators rather than diggers. The modern range? Bulldozers, excavators, wheel loaders, backhoe loaders, tractors, engines, mining trucks, and forklifts.

Volvo Construction Equipment

Swedish brand Volvo, based in Gothenburg, is the one people reach for when wheel loaders are the priority, though that is far from all it makes. Excavators, bulldozers, cranes, heavy machinery of every description, it builds the lot. Oddly enough, Volvo Construction grew out of a marine-engine business before pivoting to excavators in the early 1950s. And the badge, of course, means something well beyond a job site, on the cars, trucks, and transport vehicles known for going the distance.

John Deere

John Deere splits its attention between construction and agriculture, all run from Moline, Illinois. The story starts in 1837 with one clever idea: a self-scouring steel plow that shrugged off the heavy soil that clogged everything else. Plows led to tractors, and tractors led to bulldozers, excavators, wheel loaders, and crawler tractors, alongside the farm, lawn-and-garden, and forestry equipment Deere is known for. Canadian contractors still go out of their way for the green-and-yellow machines.

The Main Types of Construction Equipment These Brands Build

Bulldozers

A bulldozer is the fleet's heavy pusher. Wide, low, and fitted with a big front blade, it clears trees, shoves earth, and levels ground. A lot of material to move in one pass? This is the machine.

Wheel Loaders

Wheel loaders scoop and carry, plain and simple. A big front bucket lifts soil, gravel, whatever is loose and heavy, while the oversized wheels take on grades and rough ground that would strand a smaller machine.

Excavators

An excavator digs, and digs deep. Boom, arm, bucket: it trenches, carves foundations, and lifts out spoil, which is why pipe-laying crews cannot do without one. Some reach down impressively far. Others stay compact for sites where nothing larger squeezes in.

Skid Steer Loaders

Skid steers are the little all-rounders, quick and nimble. They grade soil, push sand and gravel around, and cut the occasional small trench, fitting where the big machines simply cannot. Change the attachment and the same loader does something else entirely.

Backhoe Loaders

A backhoe loader is really two machines bolted together: a loader bucket at the front, a digging arm at the back. Grading, digging, lifting, moving material, it handles all of it, and plenty of models swap in skid-steer, dozer, or forklift attachments on top.

Finance Your Construction Equipment With EFC

Buying new equipment from any of these brands is a major outlay, and that is where Equipment Finance Canada comes in. We work with construction companies large and small to finance vehicles and heavy equipment, with a quick application and fair, competitive rates. As the Business Development Bank of Canada notes, “Buying is usually cheaper over the life of the asset, but leasing generally requires less cash upfront, putting less strain on cash flow.” (BDC). Need a CAT excavator or a Deere loader on site soon? Learn more about our financing options or apply now.