Doosan Bobcat

Doosan Bobcat Adjusts Interest Rate on Loans, Lifts Profitability Again

Based on its robust sales record, Doosan Bobcat is emerging as a highly profitable company by taking such proactive measures as early debt repayment, refinancing and interest rate adjustment.
On March 5, Doosan Bobcat announced that it had succeeded in pushing for an adjustment of its interest rate on its corporate loans totaling $1.24 billion (about KRW 1.3 trillion), which means that the company could save as much as $6 million in financing costs in 2018 alone. Doosan Bobcat has seen its spread drop by 1.81 percent in just 10 months, including 0.5 percent (50 basis points) in the latest adjustment, which amounts to $24 million in interest savings on an annual basis.
Doosan Bobcat has worked consistently to reduce its financing costs through early repayment and refinancing arrangements. Since 2014, the company has made early repayments on four occasions for a total amount of $420 million. In May 2017, it refinanced its Term Loan B* loans with U.S. institutional investors and banks and lowered its previous interest rate by as much as 1.1 percent.
In November 2017, Moody's Investor Service raised Doosan Bobcat's credit rating from B1 to Ba3, leading to an additional decrease of 25 basis points (0.25 percent) in its interest rate.
Based on its abundant cash flow backed by the strong housing market in North America and steady improvements in its business performance, Doosan Bobcat has succeeded in making early repayments and refinancing arrangements as well as adjusting its interest rate. In line with rapid improvements in its profitability and financial structure, Doosan Bobcat has achieved average annual growth rates of 6.2 percent and 32.3 percent in operating profit and net income, respectively, since 2013. Most notably, the annual net income of Doosan Bobcat increased by 55.8 percent to $242.08 million in 2017.
"The latest interest rate adjustment is a positive outcome of the company's continuous efforts to secure financial soundness and maximize corporate profitability amid external circumstances characterized by interest rate hikes and financial market volatility," said an official of Doosan Bobcat. "Given the current cash flow, Doosan Bobcat is most likely to reach net cash** by 2020."

2018-03-05

Doosan Bobcat wins Pin Up Design Awards 2017

Doosan Bobcat announced on Jan. 17 that it was awarded the highest prize, “Best of the Best” at the Pin Up Design Awards 2017. The company is the first construction equipment maker to receive this prestigious award.
The Pin Up Design Awards, celebrating its 21st year, is an annual design competition hosted by the Korea Association of Industrial Designers and sponsored by the Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. It is recognized as one of the country’s three major design awards along with the Korea Design Award and the Good Design Award.
The Doosan Bobcat E85 mini excavator, which was honored with the top prize this year, was well-received for its design that accurately reflects the product concept: a tough, agile and versatile compact machine. The E85 model was unveiled at last year’s ConExpo, North America’s largest construction trade show, and since has enjoyed a good response in the market thanks to not only its great design, but also the improved stability, power, performance, visibility and telematics system it offers.
“This valuable achievement came from close global collaboration between Doosan Bobcat’s NA engineering team and Doosan Infracore’s design team,” a Doosan Bobcat official said. “We will continue such efforts to develop products that are both excellent in design and quality.”

2018-01-17

Doosan Bobcat Launches Earthforce by Bobcat in China

Doosan Bobcat celebrated the official product launch of Earthforce, a newly branded series of skid-steer loaders designed to penetrate the Chinese and emerging markets. Doosan Bobcat now has 10 manufacturing facilities in 5 countries: U.S., France, the Czech Republic, India, and China
Earthforce is a sub-brand of Doosan Bobcat, developed to meet the needs of customers in China and emerging markets. The basic design and major components of the Earthforce products strictly conform to the standards of the Bobcat brand to ensure performance and durability. At the same time, components that do not influence the key performance of the products are manufactured or supplied locally in order to lower the production costs.
There are two Earthforce skid-steer loader models—S16 and S18—and they are manufactured at the Suzhou Plant in China. Skid-steer loaders are usually used for small-scale construction projects or for moving things around on farms and ranches, and Doosan Bobcat plans to increase its market share in the farming and construction equipment industry in China, Russia and other emerging markets.
In 2016, Doosan Bobcat recorded $186 million in sales in Asia and Latin America. The share of sales in emerging markets was 5 to 6 percent of its total sales. According to Off-highway Research, a management consultancy specializing in the research and analysis of international construction, the Chinese skid-steer loader market is expected to grow by more than 12 percent annually by 2021.
“At the beginning of mass production, we will focus on raising awareness of compact construction equipment in the Chinese market through product briefings and training," said an official of Doosan Bobcat. "Then we will launch Earthforce in other major emerging countries to gradually increase new demand."
Doosan Bobcat has also recently introduced a series of new products, the R-Series excavators and M2-Setries loaders, to North America and Europe in Q1 and Q2 2017 to further strengthen its leading position in developed markets.

2017-06-20

Doosan participates in ConExpo 2017, North America's largest construction equipment exhibition

Doosan Infracore announced on March 5 that, together with Doosan Bobcat, it is to participate in ConExpo 2017, North America's largest construction equipment exhibition, to be held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, USA from March 7-11, and display over 80 types of products including the full lineup of the companies' construction equipment and engines.
The triennial ConExpo is considered one of the world's largest construction machinery exhibitions along with Bauma in Germany and Intermat in France. This year, more than 140,000 visitors are expected to visit the expo’s exhibition hall (300,000㎡), a size of forty football fields.
Doosan aims to increase its brand and product awareness by using "Strong, Tough and Powerful' as the theme of its three brands - "Doosan," "Bobcat," and "Portable Power" – at the exhibition.
Doosan will introduce nine excavator models in the 14-50 ton class and five wheel loaders and articulated dump trucks (ADT) at a large booth covering approximately 3800㎡. Among the products to be exhibited at the booth are twenty-one models of Bobcat loaders including skid-steer loaders and compact track loaders, and eleven models of mini excavators, a variety of utility equipment, telehandlers and attachments.
Bobcat will unveil its new M2-Series loaders and R-Series compact excavators at this year's ConExpo. The new R-Series offer more lift-over-side capacity, a dashboard with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and a redesigned cab offering higher visibility and comfort.
DoosanCONNECT, a telematics solution using the latest information and communications technology (ICT), will also be introduced at the show. The new solution provides services such as GPS, remote vehicle diagnosis and accident detection.
Doosan Infracore is also to showcase nine engines including four G2 engine models, the company’s environmentally-friendly, high-efficiency compact products, and two large engines at a separate Engines booth (144㎡), which is more than four times larger than its booth at the previous ConExpo 2014, to target its North American client base.
On March 8th, Joel Honeyman, Doosan Bobcat’s Vice President of Innovation, is scheduled to deliver a presentation on the future of construction machinery worksites equipped with telematics and unmanned technology.
"This is a great opportunity to strengthen the image of the Doosan and Bobcat brands in North American market," said an official of Doosan. "We are excited to use our advanced customer management system to collect and process information instantly at the exhibition site which will help us seek out potential customers and build relationships based on this information."

2017-03-16

Doosan Donates Doosan Bobcat® Equipment to Mount Baekdu Army Unit

Doosan announced on Dec. 21 that it donated a Doosan Bobcat® compact track loader (CTL), along with five attachments to carry out snow removal and other outdoor tasks, to the Korean Army’s Mount Baekdu unit (ROK Army 21st Division) in Yang-gu, Gangwon Province.
During the ceremony held at the Mount Baekdu unit base, Doosan Group Chairman Jeongwon Park said: “We hope that our equipment could help lessen the soldiers’ burden of snow removal after heavy snowfalls in wintertime.”
As a top-selling product of Doosan Bobcat, the world’s leading compact construction equipment maker, the CTL can, with the use of different attachments, perform many functions, including snow removal, loading and unloading.
During the “Tea of Love” event held at the Mount Baekdu unit base on Dec. 8, some of the soldiers mentioned the difficulty they face every winter due to frequent heavy snowfalls in the presence of Chairman Park. Later, the company decided to donate the Bobcat® CTL to support the soldiers.
“Considering the nature of the work that must be done at the army base, we thought Doosan Bobcat’s compact track loader, which can carry out a wide range of tasks in various conditions, is the best fit,” said a Doosan official.

2016-12-21