In 1966, there were 64 factories manufacturing material handing equipment and around a third of these was producing lifting equipment. During that time, the factories were able to meet the demand for lifting equipment. For example, 200t gantry cranes, 200t semi-gantry cranes, 350t overhead travelling cranes, 5t underhung cranes, 10t electric wire rope hoists and 1,250kg stack cranes. However, the total output was small.
Liqun Xiao, the secretary general of the Material Handling Council of China, meets Hoist editor Richard Howes at last year’s CeMAT Asia show in Shanghai
By 1982, there were 207 factories in total and the types of product and their performance had been enhanced. According to statistics issued by the National Bureau of Statistics of China, by 2005, there were 587 lifting equipment companies, 292 of whom were private-owned companies. The sales volume in 2005 totaled RMB 68.8 billion (Euros 6.6bn).
The BMHI played a vital role in the development of China’s crane industry, particularly in terms of technological advancements. Nowadays, nearly 70% of the output of lifting equipment is produced with blueprints, or based on the blueprints which were developed by “joint design groups”, and so-called “joint design blueprints”.
These products included overhead travelling cranes, single girder cranes, CD, MD electric wire rope hoists, to name just a few. Why did we design products jointly? The reasons were that most Chinese companies in this sector were weak in the technical development area and it was impossible for them to develop a full serial product. Thus, a design group was set up under the leadership of the BMHI. The design members were the engineers from related factories and was found to be the most effective way to develop a serial of product.
There is a manufacturing licensing regulation named the Regulations on Safety Supervision of Special Equipment, which was brought into effect from June 1 2003. According to the regulation, lifting equipment is categorised as special equipment, and related production (including design, manufacturing, installation, renew, maintenance and repair), usage, inspection, and supervision must follow these regulations. Therefore, if a company wants to produce cranes, and/or electric wire rope hoists, and/or electric chain hoists, for example, the company has to gain a license(s) through a required process before beginning production, which is issued by the Bureau of Special Equipment Safety Supervision, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People’s Republic of China (AQSIQ), and if imported cranes and/or electric hoists are sold in China, it is mandatory to pass through related type test and inspection. It is illegal to make cranes without this kind of license(s), or sell imported cranes without getting certification of type tests.
When discussing the Chinese lifting business, it is important to mention the Changyuan County, Henan Province – a rural area, located in the centre of China. There are 101 local crane companies that have manufacturing licenses within the county, most of which make overhead travelling cranes for general purpose and electric wire rope hoists.
These companies all adopt a low price strategy, sharing a growing market share thus influencing China’s crane market. A local government officer told me that the total sales volume of the crane industry of this county reached RMB Yuan 6.3bn in 2006. The local government has paid a lot of attention to the local crane industry and guided its development. With the approval of central government, a crane industry development zone has been set up in this county. It was called the Changyuan Phenomenon.
The Chinese lifting business is expected to achieve 25-30% growth this calendar year compared to last, and is expected to achieve 10-15% growth the following two years. While it is difficult to estimate annual growth beyond that, further growth will be experienced.
The Chinese lifting business is expected to achieve 25-30% growth this calendar year compared to last, and is expected to achieve 10-15% growth the following two years
Investment
Sustainable and heavy investment has been put into fixed assets, propelling the market needs of lifting equipment. Generally, the huge amount of new-build workshops in the development zone in different areas across the country contributed to huge demand for lifting equipment. On the other hand, logistics has being a hot topic recently and this results in a huge amount of investment in projects such as ports and railway stations. Additionally, the construction of railways, highways, subways and/or light track lines in cities, all contribute to the growth of the crane business.
Also, metallurgy industry, shipbuilding industry and hydropower station projects are the three converged industry sectors providing big business.
Almost every kind of lifting equipment is in demand in China. Most factories have to work overtime and some crane manufacturers work continuously to meet order demand.
General purpose overhead travelling cranes, gantry cranes, overhead traveling cranes with single girder and electric wire rope hoists are in the highest demand and mainly produced by local manufacturers. There is also demand for ladle cranes, container cranes and shipyard cranes. Driven by large scale railway and freeway projects, specially designed cranes are needed for carrying prefabricated structure elements.
Improved
The quality of lifting equipment has improved for a number of reasons:
– Related ISO standards have been adopted as the National Standard
– Some of the main international players in this market have entered China, such as Demag, Konecranes and Abus
– Crane companies have more choice and different quality components for their products, depending on the needs and price range of the customer. A lot of international brands have contributed to the quality improvement of lifting equipment. For example, electrical control devices and systems from Siemens and ABB, gearboxes from SEW, Siemens and Flender, brakes from Bubenzer Bremsen, Sibre and Sime-Stromag, conduct bars from Vahle and Wampfler, remote control devices from HBC and Cattron-theimeg and grabs from Peiner. The list is endless.
– It is now possible to buy most crane components and/or attachment of international brands through their representative branches in China.
– The local manufacturers have been upgrading their design means, and manufacturing facilities
– The rigorous quality control required by important domestic users, such as the military, and international cooperation has enhanced the quality control systems of local crane manufacturers.
China’s crane market is one of the most comprehensive markets in the world, not only in the scale in whole, but also in the differences among the companies that coexist in the same market. Therefore, the product quality has been improving, but the quality difference from company to company, product to product is also big.
Worldwide though, only some products have been accepted by users mainly due to the quality and price. For example, container cranes manufactured by ZPMC were accepted by users in most countries and their products have been delivered to 57 countries, including the USA and Germany.
Metallurgy cranes, especially ladle cranes made by Taiyuan Heavy Machinery Group Co. (TZ), can be designed and manufactured according to any foreign standard required by customers, such as FEM, JIS, DIN, ANSI. In 2006, they produced more than 200 ladle cranes and took orders for most of the big ladle cranes with capacities more than 300t. This company has sold their ladle cranes to India and Saudi Arabia. The biggest ladle crane they produced is 480t and the biggest overhead traveling crane is 1200t/300+300t for the power plant of the Three Gorges Project.
For manually operated lifting tools, the quality has been recognised by international markets and the main international companies in Europe and the USA. For example, TBM Co. Ltd. a Zhejiang-based lifting gear companies has exported around 300,000 units, 5,000 electric chain hoists and 5,000 wire rope hoists to Europe, the USA, Australia among other parts of the world.
Badged products
More and more European manufacturers are putting their badges on Chinese products. Initially, this happened mostly in the manually operated lifting tools sector, such as hydraulic jacks and manually operated chain hoists. But recently, electric chain hoists and electric wire rope hoists have been put into the list of products with OEM. I saw some RTGs and overhead traveling cranes in a Dalian-based crane company, which has been manufactured for a European crane company and a Japanese crane company respectively.
In tandem, more Europeans are supplying the local market with their own products. Demag, Konecranes, Abus, Stahl and Noell have been present in the Chinese market for some time and have steadily built up a reputation. The customers which bought their products changed from foreign invested companies to ordinary local users. More products are imported into China’s market, but these customers are mainly high end.
European companies aside, more big international players, such as CM from the USA, Kito from Japan and Trevolution from Italy, have entered China’s market.
Gorbel from the USA, Bando Cranes and Sungdocranes from Korea, have also set up manufacturing bases to supply the Chinese market.
In short, the lifting equipment market in China is huge and growing quickly with the increasing market needs driven by imported products from across the globe. But the competition is severe and international.
The spotlight is on the Chinese lifting business china 1 The Chinese lifting business is expected to achieve 25-30% growth this calendar year compared to last, and is expected to achieve 10-15% growth the following two years china 2 Liqun Xiao, the secretary general of the Material Handling Council of China, meets Hoist editor Richard Howes at last year’s CeMAT Asia show in Shanghai china 3
