21
attended the exhibition tofindout how
manufacturers viewed themarket and the years
ahead.
Rather than exponential growth,however,
the industry is seeing a rathermore steady
rise and views differ as tohow steep the
growth curvewill become.As a result, some
manufacturers have struggled tomake headway
in aChinesemarket that remains small in
terms of numbers.Some exportmarkets,
particularly the establishedones inEurope
andNorthAmerica, are also a challenge for
Chinese producers competingwithbrands that
have longstandingdistributorships in their
biggestmarkets.
There is almost
unanimous agreement; the
powered accessmarket
in China is set to grow,
as are exports from its
domesticmanufacturers.
By just howmuch is a
topic of lively debate.
EuanYoudale
reports
However,other exportmarkets, including the
MiddleEast, are showing great potential and
manyChina-basedmanufacturers are reporting
goodgrowth.
An element of caution comes fromLi
HuaBin,generalmanager at Shanghai
JinheyuanEquipmentRental.Hewarned
that overcapacity couldbe the result of new
manufacturers rushing into the accessmarket.
MrLi,made the remarks at the International
RentalConference (IRC)Asia inNovember.
He says,while theChinese access equipment is
in its infancy andhas a very bright future, there
are risks.
The companywas founded in2007 as a crane
rental company.Since then it has changed
direction tobecome a general rental company
and investedCNY200million (€26million) in
access equipment.
He says,“Access platforms are not very
sophisticatedproducts so the risk is everyone
sees it as an easymarket to get into and rushes
into it, and themarket then gets saturated.”
Despite that,he adds,“I have very high
hopes for aerial workplatforms.Evenwhen the
economy is down, they represent a bright spot
and canhelp revitalise thewholemarket.”
Some of themost positive views of the
market inChina came from the big established
manufacturers,notably JLG,Genie and
Haulotte.They say the combinationof new
safety regulations and increased labour rates
will soon result in a tippingpoint leading
to great growth. (See their comments about
theChinesemarket, alongwith a view from
Gaining ground
Dual boom
vertical
masts on
the Buomo
stand at
Bauma
China.
Runshare has updated
its scissor technology
for the 11models in its
range from 5m– 11m.
T
here is somewhere between 20 and
35manufacturers of aerial work
platforms inChina.The number is
not exact asmanymanufacturers based in the
country don’t knowwho all their competitors
are,beyond themost established ones.This
is understandable considering theChinese
market for access equipment is still in its
infancy,withmanufacturers startingup
relatively frequently following the promise of
exponential growth in the sector.
Oftenmanufacturers findout about new
competitors in themarket by looking through
the exhibitor list at a show likeBaumaChina,
which tookplace inNovember last year.
AI
CHINA
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2015
access
INTERNATIONAL
