From "apprentice" to "master" Chinese engineering machinery is striding towards the world

1. Faced with competition

The development of human society is inseparable from the use of natural resources and the transformation of the natural environment. In this process, construction machinery widely used in construction, water conservancy, roads, mines, ports and other fields undoubtedly enables human beings to gain the ability to surpass their physical functions in transforming the natural environment. Therefore, the manufacturing level and production capacity of construction machinery has always been regarded as a key indicator to measure the industrial level of a country. Thailand National Railway Station, Kenya's Munne Railway, Brunei Cross-sea Bridge... Today, in the “One Belt, One Road” many super projects, China's construction machinery products are densely covered.

Sany Heavy Industry's construction machinery and equipment construction site construction in Kenya's Munne Railway

Bao Jianfeng smashed out, plum blossoms came from bitter cold. At the beginning of the reform and opening up, although China has established a relatively complete industrial system, it is still in a relatively backward state in the field of engineering machinery with wide coverage, large demand and various types. In the early 1990s, when the wave of construction was surging in China, the construction machinery market was full of “foreign brands”. At that time, Caterpillar Inc., which is good at producing excavators and mining equipment, has excellent advantages in bulldozers, forklifts, shield machines, etc., and is known for its self-propelled graders, road rollers, and mining trucks. The Volvo Group has achieved rapid development in the Chinese market.

Opening up will inevitably bring competition. The good news is that Chinese domestic construction machinery practitioners are not afraid of the competition brought about by openness, but they are not willing to lag behind, but they are catching up. In 1992, Zhan Chunxin, then vice president of the construction minister of the Construction Machinery Research Institute, led 7 technicians and borrowed 500,000 yuan to establish the "Zhonglian Construction Machinery Industry Company", which integrates science, industry and trade, and began to explore the scientific research system. The road to reform. At that time, the concrete pump market accounted for 95% of the overseas brand market, but in the eyes of Zhan Chunxin, this is precisely a market with great potential for domestic brands.

In 1993, China's first generation of concrete pump with completely independent intellectual property rights was born in Zhonglian, and realized sales profit in the same year. However, as China United has just begun to convert drawings into products, the technical experience is insufficient. The quality of the concrete pump that has been sold has once appeared a quality problem, and the technicians continue to “fire”. As a result, Zhan Chunxin decided to stop production completely, and after extensive on-site investigation, the product was completely remodeled and redesigned. After the efforts of the technicians, the new generation of products finally went offline, and Zhonglian replaced the 10 old products sold in the previous period for free. Since then, the development of Zoomlion has become wider and wider.

The first intelligent asphalt spreader, the first rubber powder modified asphalt equipment, the first self-propelled gravel spreader, and the first heat transfer oil heated in-situ cold recycler...although in product distribution and middle The giants such as Union Heavy Industries are different, but as a professional manufacturer of pavement construction machinery, Xi'an Dagang Pavement Machinery Co., Ltd. has also made technology the basis of survival since its establishment. It has not only created a number of “domestic firsts”, but now the products are more It is exported to more than 50 countries and regions overseas.

2, the time is ripe for mergers and acquisitions

Along with the continuous deepening of China's construction boom, a group of excellent construction machinery enterprises have established a firm foothold in China. At the same time, due to the relatively saturated construction market in many developed countries, some high-quality construction machinery manufacturers suffer from insufficient demand and high costs. At this time, investing in overseas mergers and acquisitions has become the latest choice for many domestic engineering machinery giants to open up and develop.

HSW is the largest construction machinery manufacturer in Central and Eastern Europe. Its full range of bulldozers is leading the world and has trained a large number of high-level industry talents. Late at night on January 31, 2012, after 22 months of arduous negotiations, Guangxi Liugong Machinery Co., Ltd. officially became the new owner of the HSW civil engineering machinery business unit.

As the world's largest loader manufacturer, Liugong's assembly shop has a construction machinery and equipment offline every 7 minutes. After entering the HSW company, Liugong Poland management team immediately set up a number of special teams responsible for the improvement and optimization of lean production, procurement, research and development, human resources, IT management systems. Not only has the efficiency been greatly improved, the cost has been significantly reduced, and the Liugong brand excavators and loaders have been introduced to Poland and successfully launched in less than three months. HSW has emerged as an industry miracle in the early stages of the acquisition, and Liugong has been highly recognized by international counterparts.

Coincidentally, Xugong Group has also actively carried out overseas mergers and acquisitions of German and American high-quality engineering machinery companies such as Schwein in recent years. At the same time, Xugong Group has continuously increased the pace of direct investment in overseas construction to better integrate overseas resources and lay out the global market. Today, XCMG's “going out” strategy has gradually yielded results: several overseas R&D centers and assembly plants have been put into production, covering 177 countries and regions, and more than 280 overseas agents provide marketing services... January-May 2017 The export of XCMG brand exceeded 2.4 billion yuan, up 94.18% year-on-year. Its market share in Brazil, Russia, Central Asia and the Middle East continued to rank among the top 3 international brands.

"In recent years, China's construction machinery industry has made great progress in independent research and development and cutting-edge technological innovation. Many domestic excellent construction machinery enterprises have actively gone overseas to acquire high-quality counterparts or parts suppliers after they have reached a certain stage. In essence, it is the duality of domestic and international markets, the use of domestic resources and foreign resources, which is the meaning of open development. Overseas mergers and acquisitions can help Chinese construction machinery enterprises to break away from relying solely on trade methods to expand overseas markets. The protectionism and technical barriers faced on the other hand, on the other hand, help Chinese construction machinery enterprises to directly integrate the superior technology of overseas high-quality enterprises, such as technology accumulation, sales channels, industrial talents, etc., thereby enhancing the international competitiveness of Chinese enterprises. Zhou Minliang, a researcher at the Institute of Industrial Economics, said in an interview with this reporter.

3. Integrating advantages to the world

Today, there are more and more Chinese construction machinery companies that dare to lay overseas and are good at overseas cooperation. The “apprentice” is gradually growing into a “master”. Inner Mongolia North Heavy Vehicle Co., Ltd. ("Northern Shares") was established in 1988 by a Sino-foreign joint venture. It is a company specializing in the production and development of off-highway mining dump trucks, related construction machinery and parts. In 2012, a mine in the western part of the Republic of Namibia in Africa needed to purchase a batch of 330-ton electric wheel mines, which allowed the North shares to smell the opportunity to expand into the African market.

However, in the global mining vehicle sector, foreign giant companies represented by Caterpillar Inc. of the United States and Komatsu of Japan account for 70%-80% of the market. The strong brand and technical strength of these giants make it difficult for other companies to match. To this end, Northern Shares, with its own joint venture advantage, first conducted in-depth communication and exchange with German Siemens Company on high-power drive technology, and solved the application problem of dual energy technology in large-tonnage electric wheel mining vehicles. After nearly 10 months of joint research and development, the first large-tonnage electric wheel mining vehicle using wire-laying technology in China was finally born. In the subsequent distribution, North China faced the concerns of overseas customers on intellectual property rights, construction period guarantees, bidding procedures, etc., actively integrated domestic and foreign advantageous resources, and repeatedly carried out dozens of technical exchanges with foreign technical teams. In the end, the rigorous data comparison and fine after-sales service plan conquered each other, filling the gap in the construction of high-end heavy-duty mining vehicles in China's world-class mining projects.

Su Zimeng, Secretary General of China Construction Machinery Industry Association believes that after more than 30 years of rapid development in reform and opening up, China's construction machinery industry has formed a series of specifications, diversified models, scale of production and quality on the basis of independent development and digestion and absorption of imported technologies. Standardization and other comparative advantages, this provides a guarantee for engineering machinery products in different countries and different regions to meet the needs of different customers. Under the background of the “Belt and Road” construction, the international capacity cooperation of the construction machinery industry is not only the needs of the industry's own development, but also the development needs of countries along the line. Su Zimeng predicts that the international capacity cooperation under the “Belt and Road” will not only bring new development space for the construction machinery industry, but also provide strong support for the “going out” of upstream and downstream related industries.

"China's urbanization process has entered the second half, and many areas including the 'Belt and Road' countries along the line are still in the initial stage of urbanization construction, infrastructure construction space and potential is huge. Research reports show that 2016-2020 The demand for investment in national infrastructure along the 'Belt and Road' is more than 10.6 trillion US dollars. As an important basic tool for mankind to transform the natural environment, the demand potential of construction machinery products in facilities and facilities is self-evident. It can be said that China Engineering The future of machinery is promising overseas," said Zhou Minliang.

Zhou Minliang further pointed out that Chinese construction machinery enterprises should grasp the new opportunities of open development, integrate not only domestic and overseas resources, but also timely launch products that meet the needs of the local market. At the same time, they should also pay attention to the labor, law, environment and security review of relevant countries. The policy risks are to "know your own knowledge, improve your strengths and avoid weaknesses."

Editor in charge: Ren Li