Photo: Courtesy Bauma China 2010

China has become the new power market for heavy iron, digging into the traditional construction markets of Japan, Europe and the U.S. Likewise, last month’s Bauma China expo put Shanghai on the map as a major destination for construction equipment buyers. The biennial expo, held Nov. 23-26, attracted 150,000 people from 165 countries—more than North America’s last CONEXPO-CON/AGG show held in Las Vegas in 2008—and packed in nearly 2,000 vendors covering 2.5 million sq ft. Machine production recently has been moving this way. From 2006 to 2009, China took in 42% of the world’s crawler-tractors, wheel-loaders and excavators, outdoing Japan (30%), Europe (18%) and the U.S. (10%), says analyst Manfredi & Associates Inc., Mundelein, Ill.