Fiat Kobelco was founded in 2002 in Italy as a joint venture between Fiat and Kobelco of Japan. This followed the former joint venture with Hitachi, Fiat-Hitachi, which was dissolved in 2001. Fiat Kobelco built construction equipment such as Excavators, Backhoes, crawlers, Skid Loaders, etc... After the formation of CNH Global from the merger of Fiat's New Holland and the USAs Case IH, Fiat Kobelco became Kobelco Construction Machinery America in America, and was absorbed into New Holland Construction.