Our Role in Asia’s Infrastructure

May 19, 2021

Our customers across the globe have done the work to build critical infrastructure. We’ve been there to support those projects. For over 100 years Caterpillar has been serving our customers in Asia, helping local communities succeed and thrive. Our services have contributed to progress and success throughout the continent. 

Check out this video featuring historical clips of our products in action in Asia.

Very quickly after the first Holt Manufacturing Company gasoline powered “Caterpillar” track-type tractor was sold in 1908, it made its way across the globe. By 1914, the first Caterpillar machines were introduced in Asia. In May of that year, Holt reported it sold Caterpillar tractors in Indonesia. These first machines were used in plow sugar cane fields. By June, customers in India and Japan were reacting positively to the machines.  

In 1919 Holt established sales territories for equipment in China, and by the early 1920s both Holt and the C.L. Best Tractor Co. were publishing product literature focused on in-country use. The 1925 merger of Holt and Best to form Caterpillar increased our presence within the market, including the beginning of a dealer network in 1926. 

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Fleet of Cat 789B Off-Highway Trucks, 2000.
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Fleet of Cat 789B Off-Highway Trucks, 2000.

Caterpillar Japanese dealer advertisement, 1927.
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Caterpillar Japanese dealer advertisement, 1927.

First Best 60 tractor sold in Singapore, ca. 1923.
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First Best 60 tractor sold in Singapore, ca. 1923.

Cat dealer providing service at the An Tai Bao Mine, China, 2000.
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Cat dealer providing service at the An Tai Bao Mine, China, 2000.

A fleet of 220 Cat machines and generator sets works on the 3,625 miles of a four-to-six lane highway known as the Golden Quadrilateral, India, 2005.
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A fleet of 220 Cat machines and generator sets works on the 3,625 miles of a four-to-six lane highway known as the Golden Quadrilateral, India, 2005.

Cat 14E Motor Grader constructing the Tarbela Dam is an earth fill dam located on the Indus River in Tarbela Dam is an earth fill dam located on the Indus River in Pakistan. It's the largest earth-filled dam in the world and fifth-largest by structural volume. . It's the largest earth-filled dam in the world and fifth-largest by structural volume.
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Cat 14E Motor Grader constructing the Tarbela Dam is an earth fill dam located on the Indus River in Tarbela Dam is an earth fill dam located on the Indus River in Pakistan. It's the largest earth-filled dam in the world and fifth-largest by structural volume. . It's the largest earth-filled dam in the world and fifth-largest by structural volume.

Asia Infrastructure
Fleet of Cat 789B Off-Highway Trucks, 2000.
Caterpillar Japanese dealer advertisement, 1927.
First Best 60 tractor sold in Singapore, ca. 1923.
Cat dealer providing service at the An Tai Bao Mine, China, 2000.
A fleet of 220 Cat machines and generator sets works on the 3,625 miles of a four-to-six lane highway known as the Golden Quadrilateral, India, 2005.
Cat 14E Motor Grader constructing the Tarbela Dam is an earth fill dam located on the Indus River in Tarbela Dam is an earth fill dam located on the Indus River in Pakistan. It's the largest earth-filled dam in the world and fifth-largest by structural volume. . It's the largest earth-filled dam in the world and fifth-largest by structural volume.

Memorable Ways We’ve Helped Build Asia

  • In 1961, nine Cat® machines were involved in the effort to push part of a mountain into the sea for the Kobe Bay Reclamation Project. It is still one of the largest earthmoving operations that has occurred in Japan. 
  • In 1961, more than 500 Cat machines began construction work on the Mangla Dam in Pakistan.
  • In 1982, nearly 70 Cat machines and six Caterpillar engines helped construct an airfield outside Jakarta, Indonesia.
  • In 1993, approximately 300 Cat machines began construction of the Three Gorges Dam in China.
  • In 2005, 220 Cat machines and generator sets worked on a 3,625 mile stretch of four-to-six lane highway known as the Golden Quadrilateral in India.
  • In 2006, thirty-four Cat machines helped complete the Saemangeum Seawall - the world's longest earthen seawall in South Korea.

Local, Customer-Focused Teams

By the mid-1900s, Caterpillar was expanding operations throughout the continent. In 1963 Caterpillar and Larsen & Toubro Limited, a Caterpillar dealer, formed a joint venture in India to manufacture Cat equipment in Bombay. At the same time, Caterpillar and Mitsubishi Heavy-Industries formed a joint venture to manufacture Cat machines in Japan.

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