New MD takes over at Kobelco Europe

Announced earlier this month, the change is part of a planned transition which sees founder of the division, Makoto Kato, hand over to Takemichi Hirakawa.

After more than a decade, Mr Kato has completed his tenure as KCME’s managing director and excavator division director, with Mr Hirakawa taking the position as of 1 January 2026.

Takemichi Hirakawa (Photo credit: KCME)

Before joining KCME in July last year, Mr Hirakawa was the managing director and CEO of Kobelco Construction Equipment India Pvt. Ltd. He said, “I am honoured to step into this role and continue building on the strong foundation that has already been laid.”

Kobelco Construction Machinery Europe B.V. (KCME) is the European sales and marketing subsidiary of Kobelco Construction Machinery Co., Ltd., Japan. It offers sales and services of crawler excavators from 1 to 140 tonnes, including a range of demolition machinery, and lattice and telescopic boom crawler cranes from 55 to 550 tonnes.

Among the development seen during the past ten years under Mr Kato is the recent move into new purpose-built headquarters and demo centre in Lelystad, Netherlands.