Friday quiz: Which entities did Hyundai merge? What is HCME’s tariff strategy? Rental firms tighten budgets

1) Hyundai announced this week that it plans to merge its two construction entities to form a single new business which is targeting revenues of KRW 8 trillion (US$11 billion). Which two entities is it merging?

• HD Hyundai and Develon
• HD Hyundai Construction Equipment and HD Hyundai Infracore
• Hyundai Engineering and Construction and Develon

2) With Donald Trump’s 9 July tariff deadline looming, what strategy is Francesco Quaranta, the recently-appointed president and CEO of Hitachi Construction Machinery Europe taking to navigate the impact of potential new tariffs?

• Reviewing sales prices
• Taking a “wait and see” approach
• Taking steps to localize production where possible

3) New figures from the IRN100 show that rental firms around the world reduced their annual equipment budgets in 2024 by a total of 11% compared with the previous year. According to the figures, which company had the highest CapEx last year?

• Loxam
• United Rentals
• Ashtead Group

4) As this week we reached the midpoint of the year, what has been IRN’s most read story of 2025 so far?

• The acquisition of H&E
• An alleged pricing cartel in the US rental market
• United Rentals making its Bauma debut

5) Finning International has appointed David Primrose as executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO) following the decision of outgoing CFO Greg Palaschuk to leave the company. Why is Palaschuk leaving?

• To take a leadership role at Cat Financial
• To pursue a new opportunity in the financial services sector in Toronto
• To launch a podcast on construction equipment finance

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