Description
Terex is an American worldwide manufacturer of lifting and material-handling plant for a variety of industries including construction, infrastructure, quarrying, recycling, energy, mining, shipping, transportation, refining and utilities. The company's major business segments include aerial work platforms, construction cranes, bulk-material hauling machines, road-paving machines, and container-port cranes.
History
General Motors
The Terex name has its origins as a division of General Motors. Due to a 1968 Justice Department ruling, General Motors was required to stop manufacturing and selling off-highway trucks in the United States for four years and divest the Euclid brand name. GM coined the "Terex" name in 1968 from the Latin words "terra" (earth) and "rex" (king) for its construction equipment products and trucks not covered by the ruling.
IBH Holding
General Motors sold the Terex division to German firm IBH Holding AG led by Horst-Dieter Esch de in 1980. After IBH Holding AG declared bankruptcy in 1983, ownership of Terex returned to General Motors and was organized as Terex Equipment Limited (Scotland), Terex do Brasil Limitada (Belo Horizonte, Brazil), and Terex USA (Hudson, Ohio).
Randolph W. Lenz
American entrepreneur Randolph W. Lenz purchased Terex USA from GM in 1986, then exercised an option to purchase Terex Equipment Limited in 1987. In 1988, Lenz merged his primary construction equipment asset, Northwest Engineering Company, into Terex Corporation, making Terex Corporation the parent corporation. The construction assets acquired by Lenz throughout the 1980s including Northwest Engineering Company, Unit Rig (brands Dart Truck Company), Terex Equipment Limited and Koehring Cranes and Excavators, Inc. all became assets of Terex Corporation.