Gulf Construction Online - Bobcat forklifts enter logistics market

Transport & Material Handling

The B20X-7 forklift in Bobcat colours.

Bobcat forklifts enter logistics market

01 December 2023

The logistics market has recently welcomed a new contender in the forklift trucks segment: Bobcat, a well-known manufacturer of compact construction equipment.

The Bobcat brand is world-famous for an extensive range of compact machines, which are used in construction, the agricultural sector, landscaping, demolition, recycling and many other industries. Its loaders and telehandlers, which can be equipped with attachments such as buckets, grabs, bale clamps, dump hoppers and pallet forks, are often used for material handling and logistics tasks.

It is, therefore, no surprise that products from sister company – Doosan Industrial Vehicle (DIV) – namely forklift trucks and warehouse equipment, are now part of the Bobcat family. These material handling machines will be produced in the well-known Bobcat colours from January 1, 2024.

“The history of Bobcat forklift trucks goes back to 1968 when the first forklift truck was produced in South Korea under the Daewoo brand,” explains a spokesman for DIV. “In 2005, the company was taken over by Doosan, after which DIV was founded in 2011 as part of Doosan Infracore. In 2021, Doosan Bobcat took over the company and all of the elements of the organisation. These include two factories in Incheon (Korea) and Yanta (China), where forklifts are produced, and a factory in Lübben (Germany) where pallet trucks and stackers are made. The company is currently active in more than 90 countries.”

Product portfolio

The Bobcat range for logistics and material handling now consists of various product lines: a series of diesel forklift trucks with lifting capacities from 2 to 16 tons; a series of LPG forklift trucks with lifting capacities from 2 to 7 tons and a series of electric forklift trucks with lifting capacities from 1.2 to 10 tons. The latter segment also includes a line of electric forklifts with three wheels for light work from 1.2 to 2 tons. The warehouse solutions include pallet trucks, stackers and reach trucks.

DIV forklifts are now part of Bobcat family.

Doosan Bobcat introduced a number of new machines at the recent LogiMAT, an international trade show for intralogistics solutions and process management, which was held in Stuttgart, Germany, in April this year.

Among them was the new B80NS forklift truck, which is part of a series of electric counterbalanced forklift trucks with lifting capacities of 8 and 10 tons. In addition, two prototypes were on display: the three-wheel B18NT electric forklift with a lithium battery and the B30X-7 Plus hydrogen forklift.

Bobcat DNA

The DIV website states that the company strives to bring simple and powerful machines to the market that offer the driver a lot of comfort and that are also environmentally friendly.

“These ambitions make it clear that the two companies are a great fit, because Bobcat's principles are virtually the same. Both companies also invest heavily in innovation to develop valuable and reliable products for their customers, so that they can perform their work efficiently and get optimal return on their investment,” says a spokesman for Doosan Bobcat.

“Thanks to the integration into Doosan Bobcat, DIV can benefit from Bobcat's extensive R&D facilities, a number of exciting machine management innovations, marketing know-how and Bobcat's extensive dealer network, while Bobcat now has a virtually complete portfolio of compact machines,” he concludes.