Haulotte first in China with BST

Chongqing Baisitai Machinery (BST) had added a Haulotte HTL4014 telehandler to its rental equipment fleet, representing the first telehandler purchase for the company and the first Haulotte telehandler to enter the Chinese construction market.

BST was founded in April 2015 as the division of Zhibang Group specialising in aerial work platforms. Zhibang has been a dealer of heavy construction machinery for the past 12 years. Its move into the AWP sector was a carefully calculated one. Liao Jingbo, deputy general manager of Zhibang, said, “We researched and observed the AWP industry for two years before setting up BST. Our conclusion is that, compared to the construction machinery market as a whole, the AWP industry holds the greater future potential. The rapid growth in this area is already clearly visible.”

BST has been working closely with Haulotte and counts 180 Haulotte machines among its 300-strong fleet. Over the past two years, Haulotte has also provided training and loaned demonstration machines to help it educate the Chinese market.

The purchase of the HTL4014 holds strategic significance. With only just over 100 telehandlers in China, Mr Liao and Wu Weidong, general manager of BST, is seeing the demand for this type of machine increasing. And additional purchases of Haulotte telehandlers will follow.

BST is aiming at the AWP industry in China’s western regions, an area that is not yet as financially developed as the east. However, both Liao and Wu are convinced that the growth of the AWP industry in the west is imminent. At the same time, they recognise the need to cater for the unique character of the Chinese market. Mr Wu says, “Our role in this collaboration is to combine our extensive experience in the construction machinery sector with our interactions with Chinese customers to give Haulotte suggestions for additional features to ensure that their machines ideally fit the requirements of the Chinese market.”