Dingli's new factory to build booms for domestic market

Chinese aerial platform manufacturer Zhejiang Dingli Machinery Co is building a new 46000 m² facility to produce an extended range of large self propelled booms, targeted mainly at the Chinese market. The RMB20 million (€2.06 million) investment is part of a strategy to refocus on domestic sales in response to a decline in Dingli's traditional export markets, including Europe.

The assembly facility is scheduled to open in October this year and is very close to Dingli's recently completed main production facility in Hangzhou, 200 km south of Shanghai. It will make rough terrain scissors and the company's current 16 m articulated and telescopic booms. Planned production also includes 26/28 m booms, 30/32 m and 36/38 m telescopic booms.

Mr Xu Shugen, Dingli's founder and chief executive officer, told AI that although Dingli remained committed to exporting - for example, Spanish company GAM is currently trialling a 16 m articulated boom and 18 m rough terrain scissor - the company needed to pursue opportunities in China until its European and other export markets recovered. He said there was growing demand for large booms from Chinese shipyards, utility companies and government bodies.

Dingli's product sales are concentrated on smaller electric scissors, vertical mast platforms and material handling products, such as pallet trucks. Export sales represent two-thirds of its RMB 160 million (€16.5 million) sales last year.

Mr Xu, who founded Dingli in 1997 when in his early thirties, said he welcomed plans by JLG, Genie and Haulotte to start manufacturing aerial platforms in China, as well as the Chinese investments by western rental companies like Hertz . "I'm not scared of [western manufacturers]. It will help improve the quality of the Chinese aerial platform industry. They will help the rental industry to develop."

Mr Xu said the Chinese authorities were against the importation of used aerial platforms -and used equipment in general - in order to encourage domestic production. He said it was unlikely that this policy would change. He said used machines were not the way to develop the Chinese market.