Sany Group Plans to Focus More on Market Expansion in ASEAN

Sany Group, the largest crane maker in China and the sixth-largest in the world, plans to focus more on market expansion in ASEAN by using Thailand as a production base for excavators in the next few years in addition to Indonesia. The move is aimed at balancing the group's global sales as the economies of the European Union and the United States slow while Asia is enjoying fast growth, though the biggest proportion of its sales remains in China, amounting to 80 percent. About 10 percent of sales are in the Asia-Pacific region, said Paul Da, regional manager of Sany Heavy Industry (Thailand) Co. Ltd. “We looked for a site to build an assembly plant for excavators in Thailand last year, but decided to invest in Indonesia instead because of the flooding. However, we're still interested in Thailand if sales are big enough, say 400-500 units a year,” he said, adding that the plant would cost about US$40 million. He said that in the Asia-Pacific region outside mainland China, the Sany Group had given importance to 10 major markets, namely Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Laos, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia. For the Thai market, there are three kinds of construction machinery available: excavators, mobile cranes and concrete mixers. As it has only been in the Kingdom for five or six years, Sany's sales here are still behind those of well-known Japanese and U.S. brands that have been in the Thai market for decades. In the first half of this year, Sany's sales in the Thai market were about US$20 million, divided into mobile cranes at 70 units, excavators at 60 units and concrete mixers at 55 units. The company expects sales for this full year at US$40 million, Da said. For excavators, which is considered a large market, Sany's Thai unit targets sales of more than 1,000 units in the next five years. To achieve the target, Da said the company had deployed a marketing strategy via dealers with promotional support and after-sale service centers as well as pricing. Source:chinapost