Doesn't seem wasteful to him.
He's not going to get rich from it, he's spending thousands per excavator to import it, plus a lot of time. It certainly doesn't seem wasteful.
You can also find some deals on branded equipment on gov auction sites. People are buying lots there, refurbishing when required and reselling for similar markups.
All of the options require a bit of legwork and elbow grease.
Basically, you're paying more but they're taking all of the hassle and worry and a large part of the risk out of the operation for their cut and you're not paying much more than you otherwise would for the service.
His gross profit is probably about $12k per.
Shipping is probably about $4k/container. It used to be $2k for a 40-foot before the pandemic.
He also has to front the money and carry the inventory, which is the real problem. The big manufacturers finance their equipment, which he probably can't do. So he needs to pay cash up front. Maybe he needs to sell 4 to cover costs. But then he needs to buy the next shipment, which'll eat up his cash flow.
FYI, this is the problem with inventory financing (or lack thereof): you need money to buy and carry the inventory. If you're not careful you'll lose money on the float.