EQUIPMENT
56
Liugong
international
construction
november 2013
It is just over 18 months since China’s Liugong acquired Polish dozer manufacturer HSW, which
makes equipment under the Dressta brand.
Chris Sleight
reports on how the deal is changing
the lives of both companies.
I
t was way back in March 2011
that Liugong announced plans
to acquire Polish state-owned
dozer manufacturer Huta Stalowa
Wola (HSW) and its distribution
subsidiary Dressta, but it took until
January of the following year for
the deal to be signed. Part of the
rationale for Liugong was to give
it a manufacturing footprint in
Europe, as well as adding dozers to
its portfolio.
Dressta benefits
But it is also increasingly looking
like a good move for Dressta, with
the company’s long-standing Polish
management team talking bullishly
about the opportunities that are
already springing from being part
of a full-line manufacturer with a
growing global network.
As Dressta general director Leszek
Holysz put it, “We are looking
for dealers all over the world and
Liugong can help us with that. We
are not present in Latin America
apart from Panama, but Liugong
has dealers there and that is an
opportunity for us.”
Dressta can trace its origins as far
back as 1902, and manufacturing by
HSW began in 1937. Partnerships
and alliances have come and gone
over the years but there is no
denying the company’s long history
in the dozer segment.
In fact, it is this heritage that
Liugong sees as a key part of what
it acquired. “Dressta was a very
famous brand and our history goes
all the way back to the first dozers.
In the intervening years people have
forgotten who Dressta is, so we need
to get our machines and heritage
known again,” said Liugong vice
president and chairman of Liugong
Poland, David Beatenbough.
He added, “I truly believe the
quality of what we build here is
second to none. They are stable
designs and they prove themselves
in very harsh applications all over
the world. We have machines with
10,000s of hours all in very difficult
mining applications.”
On the practical level, the
acquisition has added dozers to
Liugong’s portfolio. The line-up of
nine models runs from the 74 hp
(55 kW) TD-7R to the 515 hp (384
kW) TD40E Extra, which more or
less corresponds to Caterpillar’s D10
model. In addition, it makes pipe
layers, backhoe loaders and a few
loader models.
Global ambitions
Liugong’s primary aim is to be
able to sell the dozers in particular
worldwide, and the current stage in
this project is a collaborative effort,
according to Mr Beatenbough.
“We’re working on a new
generation of dozers. That involves
a team of 12 engineers from China
and 12 engineers from Poland. They
are working together in pairs – one
from China and one from Poland
– and that is working very well,”
he said.
But of course another big factor
in the acquisition was to give
Liugong a factory in Europe where
it could produce a range of different
machines for the regional market
– a project that has been underway
for some time.
Mr Beatenbough said, “One of the
reasons we invested here in Poland
was to give us a European base.To
be profitable in the long term we
need the factories to be running
at full capacity and we’re going to
balance production of Liugong and
Dressta machines to do that.
“Another important reason is to
build machines closer to customers
and improve things like parts
availability.”
And Liugong is ambitious in
what it wants to achieve in the
medium term. “When we took
over the company we said we
wanted to increase production
ten times in five years and
that still stands,” concluded
Mr Beatenbough.
iC
Liugong’s Polish priorities
The 515 hp (384 kW) TD40E Extra is
the largest dozer in the Dressta range,
weighing in at 67.7 tonnes, with a
near 40 m
3
blade capacity.
