Terex hoping for access & rental take-off in China

Terex China president Ken Lousberg thinks the Chinese access and rental markets are close to taking off.

Terex sees the Chinese market close to a tipping point for acceptance of powered access equipment, and expects this to go hand in hand with the country's rental industry. Terex China president Ken Lousberg said the company was well-placed to capitalise on this growth, having opened an aerial work platform (AWP) factory in Changzhou last year.

"There is no question that that type of machine is not as widely used in China as in other parts of the world. But our shipyard booms were the first that we introduced to the factory and they've done quite well. Our plan is to just bring other products - both technology that has been transferred from our overseas factories as well as products that are designed locally," he said.

Mr Lousberg continued, "We very prudent investors. We certainly wouldn't make the investment we have in Changzhou unless we felt the Chinese market was near the tipping point of acceptance. Clearly it hasn't happened yet, but we very much wanted to take advantage of our brand reputation with Genie to be a first entrant and really help develop the market."

At present Terex sells to a mix of rental companies, construction contractors and other industries that use access platforms in China. He describes the rental industry as, "Growing, but not anywhere near mature." However, he also said that this too could be close to a period of rapid growth.

"My personal feeling is that they'll both (access and rental) happen almost at the same time, because the opportunities are nearly identical. I think they'll go hand-in-hand," he said.