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Hyundai celebrates 25 years in Europe

HCEE (Hyundai Construction Equipment Europe) is celebrating 25 years in Europe. After making its European debut in Geel (province of Antwerp, Belgium) in 1995, the company is now located in a new state-of-the-art European headquarters in Tessenderlo (province of Limburg, Belgium). Becoming an independent business unit in 2017, defining the global vision 2023, and receiving the recent Technical Innovation Award for the new wheel loader, are clear indications that things keep on moving within Hyundai Construction Equipment.

However, HCEE’s growth has been gradual and the company comes from humble beginnings. Hyundai’s history can be traced back to Korea to 1947 – when Mr Ju Yung Chung founded a small construction company. With Creative Wisdom, Positive Thinking and Unwavering Drive (the company’s values), Hyundai’s activities quickly expanded into new industries to grow into a global company. Hyundai Heavy Industries was founded in 1972 as a shipbuilding company. In the following years, other divisions were added including Offshore, Marine Engine, Industrial Plant, Electro Electric Division and Green Energy. The Construction Equipment division was founded in the mid-1980s. During the early years, a limited number of excavators and wheeled loader models were produced.

At the end of the nineties, Hyundai also started to develop forklift trucks. The HCEE forklift portfolio at that time comprised of various models with lifting capacities between 1 ton and 25 tons, driven by LPG, diesel or electric. The latest forklift trucks come with lithium-ion batteries with state-of-the-art technology. Soon after its establishment, the Construction Equipment Division spread its wings internationally and established companies on all continents – including Europe.

The official founding dates back to February 7th 1995. HCEE settled in Geel in the renovated buildings of a former metal construction company under the name of Hyundai Heavy Industries Europe NV. The name would remain unchanged till September 2017 when it changed into Hyundai Construction Equipment Europe NV. The name switch coincided with the move from Geel to brand new 81,000m² premises in Tessenderlo. A second key date in 1995 is December 12th, which marked the start-up of the assembly line in Belgium. Four years later the assembly of machines was reduced, and the company was transformed into a European distribution centre in Belgium – which it still is to this day. Today, the machines all arrive via RORO and container ships that sail directly from Ulsan into the port of Antwerp (Verrebroek) in a 33,000m² stockyard.

Following its success in Europe, the company outgrew the location after 20 years. The move to Tessenderlo in October 2017 to the new facility allowed HCEE to double the capacity to supply machinery parts, welcome customers and intensify the commercial and technical training to the network of distributors. The HQ is located along the E313 highway, a situation that offers ideal accessibility conditions, and covers a 5,400m² three-store office building, a 12,000m² warehouse, a European training centre called Hyundai Academy of 2600m², a 43m² exhibition hall and a 450 m² event room. This move marks another major milestone in the path towards the common goal to enter the top tier ranking in the global construction equipment market by 2023.

In January 2020, HCEE scooped the Technical Innovation Award, in the ‘Medium Wheel Loaders’ category for the new HL960A (pictured above). The award-winning HL960A will take centre stage on the Hyundai booth at Samoter 2020 (Italy) in March.

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