New pump player

A joint venture between China's Shantui and Japan's Nikko, along with local Shantui dealer Zhongnan, has set up a 350000 m2 factory in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, to produce truck-mounted concrete pumps, truck mixers and mixing plants.
The factory was acquired by Shantui when it bought Hubei Chutian Construction Machinery in 2008. It has since been expanded and new products have been added to the range through the partnership with Nikko. The newly expanded facility, which is 55.6% owned by Shantui, 37.5% by Nikko and 6.9% by Zhongnan, has the capacity to produce 5000 truck pumps, 10000 truck mixers and 1000 mixing plants per year.
The owners are targeting sales of CNY 20 billion (US$ 3.1 billion) per year for these products - a big leap from the CNY 330 million (US$ 51 million) achieved last year. As a step towards this ambitious goal, sales this year are expected to hit CNY 2 billion
(US$ 310 million).
Shantui, which is best known as a dozer manufacturer, is owned by the government of Shandong province, which also has diesel engine manufacturer Weichai under the umbrella of its Shandong Heavy Industry Group holding company. Expansion plans for this larger group include the setting up of an R&D centre in Chicago, US, and a factory in India. It also has sales subsidiaries in Dubai, Russia and South Africa, with plans for another in Brazil.