Changsha strides toward manufacturing hub

Domestic enterprises boosted thanks to city's supportive policies and goals

Changsha city in Hunan province is ramping up efforts to build its construction machinery industry into a world-class manufacturing cluster worth 500 billion yuan ($72.14 billion) during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25).

In 2022, the output value of Changsha's construction machinery industrial cluster accounted for a third of the nation's total, with income ranking first in the country for 12 consecutive years.

Changsha is home to a batch of the global top 50 construction machinery enterprises including Sany, Zoomlion, Sunward Intelligent Equipment, China Railway Construction Heavy Industry Corp and Sinoboom.

This makes Changsha one of the world's three largest construction machinery industry clusters, along with Illinois in the United States and Tokyo in Japan.

Sunward's development path is a typical example of the Chinese construction machinery industry catching up with the rest of the world through self-innovation.

In 2004, He Qinghua, chairman of Sunward, led a team to attend the Bauma engineering machinery exhibition in Munich, Germany, and had made up his mind to create high-end products, enter foreign markets and establish a national brand.

Today, Sunward has independently developed more than 200 kinds of equipment products with intellectual property rights and core competitiveness. It has established more than a dozen subsidiaries in countries such as the US, Belgium, Russia, Singapore and South Korea. Sunward's products are exported to more than 100 countries and regions.

Zoomlion is constructing 14"lighthouse factories" worldwide, which will increase average output by 70 percent and shorten manufacturing cycles by 55 percent.

Meanwhile, Sany is mapping out the new energy industries and promoting digitalization, electrification and internationalization.

In March, there was a grand departure ceremony in the Changsha area of China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone.

A total of 216 remanufactured construction machinery devices lined up in a row, embarking on a journey through rivers and seas.

These devices were from companies such as Sany, Zoomlion, Sunward and China Railway Construction Heavy Industry, covering 12 categories of products such as rotary drilling rigs, excavators and pumping trucks, with a total value of 317 million yuan.

They were exported to countries and regions in Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe.

Xiang Wenbo, chairman of Sany, said that the company is advancing the research and development of products that cater to international markets, laying out the global supply chain and building a marketing and service system. In 2022, Sany's overseas sales grew nearly 50 percent year-on-year.

Since the beginning of this year, the overseas sales of many engineering machinery companies have continued to maintain growth momentum.

Changsha Customs data show that in the first quarter, Hunan's foreign trade roared, with engineering machinery imports and exports increasing by 147 percent year-on-year. As the engineering machinery industry gradually recovers, it is expected that companies will usher in a new boom.