Chinese rental association meets in Beijing

The Chinese Construction Machinery Rental Association (CMRA) met in Beijing on the eve of the BICES exhibition to hear from expert rental speakers and to discuss issues for the rental industry.

Speakers included David Philips of Off-Highway Research and a representative from Hertz Equipment Rental Co (HERC), which has established a fledgling rental business in the country.

Ms Li Hanbing, secretary general of the CMRA, told IRN that around 70 representatives from its 200 member companies had attended the meeting.

Although China's rental sector is still small, it experiences many of the same problems faced by their counterparts in more developed markets, such a difficulties in getting paid and varying tax regimes in different provinces. Its members also face stiff competition from the many small, private owner-operator companies found in China.

Ms Li said the association aimed to help its members by providing a forum to discuss these kinds of issues and to offer training on best practice in rental operations.

The association, based in Beijing, was founded in 2007 and has around 200 members. As many as half of these are tower crane rental firms, but its members also rent aerial platforms, road building equipment and concreting machines.