Ambitious Chinese equipment manufacturer XCMG has big plans to develop its quarrying and heavy civil construction-based products. It is investing in the development of its model range and aftermarket services, while seeking to maintain a competitive price advantage. Guy Woodford spoke to Liu Jiansen, XCMG’s assistant president and general manager of imports and exports, to learn more about the company’s big quarrying and civil markets vision.
A keen calligrapher, Liu Jiansen is confident that
“Quarry and heavy civil construction equipment has become XCMG’s new focus. We have new excavator models including the XE2800E (280tonne with bucket capacity of 15m³), XE3000 (285tonne with bucket capacity of 15m³) and XE4000 (370tonne with bucket capacity of 22m³), and new 350 horse power motor graders specially designed for mining being launched in the first quarter of 2016,” says Jiansen. “The XE4000 was shown at
Of XCMG’s other new earthmoving models, he adds: “Our new wheeled loader models include the LW900K-LNG and LW1200K. LW900K-LNG and LW1200K have already gone into the market and we have received a good response from customers. We are also delivering our first drilling jumbo to a Central Asian customer, and will launch a mobile crusher for quarrying and construction waste with our patents by the end of this year.”
Jiansen says that the company’s Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, eastern China-based XCMG’s investment in R&D puts them in a strong position in terms of their latest and soon to be launched model line-up. “We have our main R&D centres in China and Germany, and three regional R&D centres, in USA, Brazil and India. We pay much attention to our customers’ ideas. We believe the customer is our god, and the customer is our teacher.
Many of our new machines were jointly designed or invented with our customers, such as our largest 4,000 tonne crawler crane made in China which was jointly designed with our customer Synoptic, LNG loaders with Gasprom; and our 350 horse power grader for mining designed with Rio Tinto.
“Our R&D centres have comprehensive testing platforms to give quality assurance from key components selection to main machine delivery. Of course, our products are not only reliable but also offer lower total cost of ownership than some OEM giants. Now XCMG has become a solution provider for quarry and construction customers due to our variety of product lines which are wider than many competitors. On this basis, we think we are implementing our motto of ‘XCMG for Your Success’.”
Despite being a relatively new company by leading OEM standards, following its creation in 1989, XCMG has set itself big goals – including establishing itself among the top three best-selling construction equipment manufacturers globally. Naturally, exports will be key to achieving this aim, with the company having already achieved US$1.36 billion of export sales in 2012 alone.
Jiansen says XCMG has already sold equipment, including quarrying, mining and heavy civil construction equipment, to 173 nations. “We have gained an overwhelming competitive edge in Central Asia, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, South American and African markets. We are also market leader of big rotary rigs in some European countries such as Turkey, and are an equipment supplier to leading cement companies
Of countries offering XCMG the biggest growth potential for its quarrying and heavy civil construction lines, Jiansen says: “In the short term, the potential comes from developing countries in Asia, South America, The Middle East, and Africa, where infrastructure construction is undergoing rapid growth. Of course, we believe the 64 nations along the New Silk Road and Belt have great potential for quarry/heavy construction equipment.”
According to Jiansen, who has been at XCMG for seven years, and in his present dual executive positions since October 2011, XCMG’s current best-selling quarrying and heavy civil construction market models are its XE700 and XE900 excavators and LW600K, LW800K, LW900K, and LW1200K wheeled loaders which, he says, are very competitive not only in price but also in performance and quality of the worldwide customer service packages.
“These are all mature models of XCMG machines and can guarantee high efficiency, stability and reliability,” explains Jiansen. “With the same performance, XCMG machines are cheaper than other brands, ensuring high cost-effectiveness for our customers. XCMG is also dedicated to perfecting its global service and spare parts systems, and we already have 30 overseas spare parts centres close to our global customers. We are also providing customers with better aftermarket services. We design special service package for our global key accounts.”
Expanding on XCMG’s aftermarket offer, especially for its quarrying and heavy civil construction customers, Jiansen says: “We are sending more service managers and product managers to our customers’ construction sites to help them with any problems. XCMG can monitor all XCMG products through its GPS remote-data collection system and give our customers predictions on the potential problems with their machine. We also offer training for equipment operators and maintainers on-site or at one of our factories. Our dealers’ service engineers are XCMG trained and certified, giving our customers assurance on quality of service.”
With fuel consumption representing around a third of a quarry operator or contractor’s operating costs, all leading OEMs are placing great emphasis on finding new solutions to make their equipment more fuel efficient. Jiansen says XCMG has been devising its own fuel-saving solution. “We have been applying light-weight structures and new material to our equipment. We are the leader in the world in applying LNG [liquefied natural gas] and electricity to heavy construction machinery. So far, we have applied LNG to cranes, loaders, graders, excavators, concrete mixers and tow trucks. Using LNG can reduce the cost of fuel by 30%, and at the same time reduce emissions.
“Our electricity-drive system has been used on our excavators from 47 to 400 tonnes, which can reduce fuel cost by nearly 50%. We have also improved our machines hydraulic systems, power systems, electric control systems, among other areas, to reduce power waste.”
Jiansen says that the ergonomic and comfort-focused design of XCMG machines also makes them both driver and engineering maintainer-friendly, with the latter attribute reducing maintenance time.
Despite Jiansen’s confidence about XCMG’s ability to compete on the world stage, is he not concerned that the company’s growth is undermined by the reduction in China’s economic growth since 2008?
“It has brought a slump to sales to almost all sectors of machinery, including quarrying equipment,” he admits. “The Chinese government closed many small-scale quarry and cement factories due to pressure from environmental protection authorities, which has also resulted in the slowdown of quarry machine sales.”
Despite the tougher domestic market, Liu is upbeat about its continued huge importance within total global equipment sales. “In the next decade, there won’t be fast growth but there will be a sound, safe and rational development. We have to face China’s ‘New Normal Economy’. XCMG is optimistic about the Chinese market in the coming ten years. We are well prepared for the New Normal because we understand that nobody can continue to run a marathon at the speed of a 100 metre runner.”
