12
IRN SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2013
SANY INTERVIEW
Sany Heavy Industry aims
to rapidly increase export
sales of its hydraulic
excavators. Murray Pollok
met the company’s Dacheng
Zhu at the company's
Shanghai production plant.
of sales or more within five to ten years.
Already it is already massive business - total
revenues last year were around RMB 45 billion
(€5.6 billion), with concrete machinery representing
more than half of that – but if its export target is
to be achieved Sany will need a wider acceptance
of its products among rental companies worldwide,
particularly its excavators and road machinery
(graders, compaction machines, asphalt plant). The
excavator product line is the company’s second most
important after concrete machinery, accounting for
just over 20% of sales. (Sany also makes mobile and
crawler cranes, and these have become a strong
export product.)
China slowdown impact
This export push has become even more important
with the onset of the Chinese slowdown, which saw
Sany Heavy Industry’s sales fall by 8% last year
and its domestic excavator shipments down 22%
(although that compares favourably to the 37%
decline for China’s excavator market as a whole).
Although with enormous resources, Sany’s
approach to the export market, and rental
customers, is cautious and realistic.
Dacheng Zhu, deputy general manager of
Sany Heavy Machinery – the division that makes
excavators and piling equipment –and general
manager of its overseas marketing company, tells
IRN
that Sany understands that selling to rental
O
f all the Chinese manufacturers hoping
to become a genuinely global player in
construction equipment Sany Heavy Industry
is perhaps the leading contender to succeed.
Already with extensive international sales and
manufacturing operations – including production
centres in India, Germany, Brazil and the US - the
company has also been quick to strike deals with
western manufacturers: last year it acquired
Putzmeister of Germany, the concrete pump
specialist, and in the same year it signed a joint
venture with Swiss truck loader crane manufacturer
Palfinger.
Sales outside China approached the 20% mark in
2012, double the norm for the company, reflecting
both the recent downturn in its massive domestic
market and the acquisition of Putzmeister, which
boosted overseas sales. The longer term aim,
however, is for exports to represent closer to a third
Track record
Sany’s Dacheng Zhu, deputy general
manager of Sany Heavy Machinery and
general manager of its overseas marketing
company, stands next to a prototype
Sany SY16E excavator at the company’s
Shanghai manufacturing facility.
Sany Excavator’s Lingang Industrial Park in Shanghai, opened
last year, has a total area of 10.7 million square feet and 5.9
million square feet of manufacturing space. The factory produces
excavators in the 20 to 30 t size range.
