Where Do Canada’s Excavators Come From? Import Data by Country, 2015–2026

The short answer

For new excavators imported in 2025, Japan leads by customs value and China by unit count. For new wheel loaders, the United States leads by value. The answer depends on both the equipment category and the measure used.

New excavators imported into Canada by country of origin, 2025 — customs value in CAD; retained units after quantity cleaning

Excavators: Japan leads by value, China by units

China ranked at the top of origin countries by new-excavator import units in 2024 and 2025. Its unit share rose from 0.2% in 2015 to 40.7% in 2025. The chart and table show annual unit shares for China, Japan and the United States after quantity cleaning.

Unit share of new excavators imported by country of origin, 2015–2025

Why units and dollars tell different stories

Unit counts give each retained machine equal weight; customs value reflects declared amounts. In 2025, China accounted for 40.7% of new-excavator units but 16.2% of customs value. Analysis of the declarations identifies a concentration of Chinese units in lower-declared-value entries. Those entries do not establish machine dimensions. These are neither retail amounts nor a comparison of quality.

Wheel loaders: the United States still leads by value

In 2025, the United States accounted for 50.9% of new-wheel-loader import customs value, compared with China’s 11.0%. Brazil, Japan and South Korea were also among the leading origins. The US unit share was 41.2%: a majority of value does not mean a majority of machines.

New wheel loaders imported into Canada by country of origin, 2025 — customs value in CAD; retained units after quantity cleaning

Track loaders and compact track loaders

Across all new track loaders in 2025, Japan accounted for 40.9% of customs value and the United States for 38.1%. China accounted for 19.8% of units and 7.0% of value. Within the lowest-power customs category, China supplied 54.2% of retained units, or 671 of 1,237. That category includes compact track loaders but is not a separate measure of the entire commercial compact-track-loader segment.

2026 so far: January–July

From January to July 2026, Canada imported 8,808 new excavators with a total customs value of CAD 1,186,992,238. China accounted for 4,105 units, or 46.6% of the total. Japan accounted for 34.0% of value and China for 28.7%. These are partial-year results, neither an annual total nor a forecast. The data may be revised.

How to read this data

• Statistics Canada also revises earlier periods. Figures in this guide reflect the 2026-10-03 extract.
• Country means country of origin, not shipping country or brand nationality. These statistics cannot establish brand market shares.
• Imports are not sales: they exclude Canadian production and can include machines later re-exported. Values are customs values in current Canadian dollars.
• The province in the file is the province of clearance, not the province of sale or use. This guide does not measure provincial markets.
• The categories shown aggregate customs lines explicitly designated as new. Used lines and lines whose new or used status is unspecified are excluded.
• Declared machine quantities are cleaned: entries where declared value / quantity is below 1,000 CAD are excluded from unit totals while their customs value is retained. This is a quantity-error screening rule. Unit shares therefore use retained quantities; value shares use retained values.
• Country tables show leading origins ranked by customs value, rather than every country. Shares use all-country totals as denominators. Rounding and unlisted origins mean the displayed shares do not cover the entire total.

Frequently asked questions

Are excavators made in Canada?

These import data do not measure Canadian excavator manufacturing. They cannot establish whether excavators are made in Canada or how many are produced domestically.

Which country leads Canada’s new-excavator imports by unit count?

Imports do not measure sales. For new excavators imported in 2025, China led by retained unit count with 6,559 machines (40.7%), while Japan led by customs value with 39.3%. This is country of origin, not brand nationality.

Are Chinese excavators common in Canada?

Chinese-origin machines accounted for 40.7% of new-excavator import units in 2025, up from 0.2% in 2015. From January to July 2026, their share was 46.6%. These figures measure neither sales nor the installed fleet.

What should I check when choosing an imported machine?

Ask for the written terms applicable to the machine, and check parts sourcing and service options in your area. Country of origin alone does not establish after-purchase support. See TerraX’s model and service pages to continue your research.

Continue with models and service

TerraX lists SDLG excavators, wheel loaders and track loaders, alongside its service and parts information. Use these pages to examine a specific model; the country data above do not assign any share to SDLG.

SDLG excavators · SDLG wheel loaders · Track loaders · Service and parts

Data sources and licence

Adapted from Statistics Canada, Canadian International Merchandise Trade Web Application (CIMT), detailed HS import files, ODPFN014, 2015–2026. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product. Statistics Canada Open Licence. Retrieved 2026-10-03; the 2026 extract covers January–July. Country-of-origin aggregation and quantity cleaning by TerraX follow the method described above. The results can be recomputed from the public annual ODPFN014 files using the category definitions and quantity-cleaning rule above.

CIMT web application · 2025 import source file · 2026 import source file · Open licence