Shanghai rental company forecasts 20% growth in 2010

Shanghai Jinheyuan Equipment Rental, the Chinese rental company part-owned by Japan's Kanamoto, is forecasting 20% growth this year mainly as a result of expansion in its aerial platform rental business.

The company, based in Shanghai's Pudong area and established in 2006 as a joint venture with Japanese Miyuan Group and finance company Orix, has already benefitted from construction work associated with the build-up to the Shanghai Expo, where 40 of its aerial lifts and around 450 temporary accommodation units were rented.

However, the company's Chinese general manager, Ronghui Huang, told IRN that beyond the Expo, there was increasing demand for lifts from users including shipyards and on construction sites where there is pressure to be more productive. Speaking through a translator, Mr Huang said "labour is cheap, but on some projects there is not much time available and there is a need to build quickly."

The company has a fleet of more that 100 aerial platforms - a mix of Genie, JLG and Haulotte - and plans to increase the value of its fleet by around 20% this year.

Unlike its main competitors in Shanghai - including Hertz and the local Caterpillar dealer - Jinheyuan is not renting traditional rental items such as earthmoving equipment, generators and compressors, choosing instead to rent lifts, portable accommodation, piling rigs and tunnel boring machines.

Mr Huang said that the low cost of earthmoving equipment in China makes it uneconomic to rent such equipment, while portable generators are not popular on sites because there is easy access to power on many Chinese construction sites.

He said that Jinheyuan is not being run to provide an outlet for Kanamoto's used fleet, with the rental company preferring to invest in new equipment.

Read the full interview in the July/August issue of International Rental News (IRN).