PALFINGER joint venture in China starts operations

Sep 09, 2012 Warehousing Ireland News 0

---

• Approval for Sany Palfinger obtained after only six months
• Operations to start immediately
• First sales successes expected for 2012

The PALFINGER Group is about to intensify its China activities. After only six months, the competent authorities have given their approval to the Group’s joint venture with the Chinese Sany Group. “We were hoping for a swift procedure and we have already made preparations. Now that approval has been granted, operations can be started without delay. We assume that the first sales success will be achieved before the year is over,” remarks Herbert Ortner, CEO of PALFINGER AG.

In late February, PALFINGER entered into an agreement on the establishment of two joint venture companies with Sany Heavy Industry Co., Ltd., the largest heavy equipment manufacturer in China and the seventh-largest worldwide. The first joint venture company, Sany Palfinger SPV Equipment Co., Ltd., will produce and sell PALFINGER products in China for the Chinese market. The second one, Palfinger Sany International Mobile Cranes Sales GmbH, which has its registered office in Salzburg, will distribute mobile cranes produced by Sany in Europe and CIS.

In China, the market for truck mounted cranes has doubled in the past three years, from 5,000 to approx. 10,000 cranes in 2011. “We assume that the market is going to continue to grow by approx. 25 per cent each year. Therefore, in a few years China will have developed into our largest individual market by far,” comments Ortner on the economic framework.

Sany Palfinger will start selling the first two truck mounted telescopic crane models directly after its foundation. Before the end of the year, two additional models will follow and the first three regionally adapted crane models will be launched on the market.

For the time being, production will take place at the existing Sany plant in Ningxiang; the construction of a new plant is already being planned. Necessary investments in the next few years will amount to approx. EUR 100 million. With this important step, PALFINGER intends to make China its second domestic market in the long term, thereby safeguarding the Group’s global leadership position.

---