Sany branches out

Sany Heavy Industry, one of China's largest construction equipment manufacturers, has started to build a new factory in Georgia, US. The company says it will invest US$ 60 million in the facility, the first construction equipment factory in the US under Chinese ownership.

According to Sany executive vice president Zhou Fugui, the factory will take about 18 months to construct.

Sany has a range of more than 120 products, including concrete pumps, compaction equipment, crawler cranes, drills and earthmoving equipment. It is not yet clear which of these will be produced at the US factory, but concrete pumps are likely to be high on the list. Sany is China's market leader in concrete pumps, with the capacity for 1000 truck–mounted boom pumps per year at its factory in Changsha, Hunan province.

Last November Sany invested US$ 60 million in a new factory in Pune, India. It will produce a range of equipment for the Indian market, including truck and trailer concrete pumps, concrete batching plants, mixer trucks and motor graders.

The company aims to reach a production capacity of US$ 500 million at the US factory within five years. “We want to reach revenues of RMB 30 billion (US$ 4 billion) in the next five years,” said Mr Zhou.

He added, “At the moment we want to develop our own business, but in the future we may look at acquisitions.”