ShinMaywa INSIGHT

[Product History] Special Purpose Truck Division’s Dump Truck

March 13, 2020

We would like to introduce the history of dump trucks, a key product of the Special Purpose Truck Division.

The Beginning:
In the immediate aftermath of the war, while engaged in vehicle maintenance for the U.S. Army, we turned our focus to dump trucks as we prepared for the next era. Toward the end of the 1940s, we assembled parts from an American dump truck manufacturer and completed our first dump truck. Afterwards, we developed our own gear pumps for cylinders and established ourselves as a dump truck manufacturer with a reputation for high quality and durability.

1950s:
We created the “Three Way Dump Truck,” a new type of dump truck with a bed that tilts in three directions, and began our first overseas exports. Around this time, we also opened a new factory in the Kanto region that produced high-quality dump trucks on schedule, thus further enhancing our name recognition. In the late 1950s, we opened the Hiroshima Plant (Higashihiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture) as a base for meeting the growing demand for small dump trucks.

The first three way dump truck we exported

1960s:
In response to the increasing demand for trucks and the creation of ever-larger dump trucks, we opened the Samukawa Plant (Takaza-gun, Kanagawa Prefecture) to specialize in mass-produced dump trucks, as well as the Sano Plant (Sano City, Tochigi Prefecture), the largest plant in the industry, to handle large dump trucks.

1970s:
We concluded a technical assistance contract with a French truck manufacturer, which gave rise to the “TENTSUKI Dump Truck,” a new type of dump truck. This product garnered a good reputation for its superior strength and stability, and laid the foundation for the key products we would produce afterward.

「天付きダンプ®」(マレル式ダンプ) — TENTSUKI Dump Truck (Marel type dump)

1980s - present:
As Japan’s top manufacturer of special purpose trucks, we offer a diverse lineup and have earned the firm trust of the market by establishing an integrated system that covers everything from manufacturing to after-sales service as a single, unified Group. ShinMaywa Industries’ dump trucks, consistently ranked as the best in Japan among our many other high-market-share products, are one of our flagship products.

Overseas, the functional parts plant we opened in Thailand in 1988 serves as the core of our business. We recently have been focusing on expanding parts sales primarily in Southeast Asia, where we have earned a high reputation for quality.