They're coming for the skid steer,
For 19 years, SDLG was the safe kind of Chinese brand — Volvo-owned, sold through Volvo dealers, a value line that never scared anyone. Volvo sold it back to China in 2025. And at ConExpo this spring, the newly independent SDLG showed up with something it had never brought here before: a skid steer and a compact track loader.
The SR800H and TV1100H aren't token entries. Intelligent controls, optional full electric drive, a 72-hp Yanmar in the CTL. And the category they just walked into is the biggest compact market on the continent — 55,674 new CTLs and 9,465 skid steers financed in North America in the trailing year.
That's Bobcat's home turf. And it's worth noticing what else is happening on Bobcat's calendar right now: a patent war with Caterpillar that trade press is framing as a defensive wall against exactly this kind of entry. The timing isn't a coincidence. It's a market reading the same signals.
The dual-line dealer has arrived
LiuGong signed four new US dealers in June. The names matter less than the shelf-mates. Logger Shop in North Carolina will sell LiuGong alongside Sunward and Bobcat. Monticello Equipment Rental in New York carries LiuGong next to Develon.
Read that again: Chinese brands aren't getting orphan storefronts anymore. They're getting floor space inside dealerships that also carry the incumbents. When a dealer principal puts a LiuGong next to a Bobcat, he's made a margin calculation — and the incumbents' territory managers know exactly what that calculation says.
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Everun: claims the #1 spot among Chinese mini-wheel-loader exporters, and it's building North America–spec machines — Cummins, Yanmar, and Kohler EPA4 engines — with distributors already on this continent. If you sell compact articulated loaders, this is the brand to watch. No named NA dealer announcements yet; that's the signal to wait for. everun.com
The clone economy: on Made-in-China and Alibaba, entire supplier categories are titled "Avant Mini Loader manufacturers" — Chinese factories using a Finnish OEM's brand name as the product keyword, complete with "Avant Mini Wheel Loader 0.8–6 Ton Price List." Not lookalikes. Brand-name-as-SKU. When the patent lawyers finish with Cat and Bobcat, this is where they go next. Made-in-China
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The thread: the first wave of Chinese equipment in North America was big iron — excavators, cranes, machines for mine sites and mega-projects. This is the second wave, and it's aimed at the compact market: the skid steers, CTLs, and mini loaders that independent dealers actually stock and acreage owners actually buy. The big-iron wave took twenty years to earn dealer floor space. The compact wave is starting with it.
— Cole