Three new cranes from Liugong

Liugong has launched two truck cranes and one crawler on the Chinese market, writes Chris Sleight.

Unveiled at this week's BICES exhibition in Beijing, the new models are the 50 tonne capacity QY50C and 70 tonne QY70 wheeled mobile cranes and the 160 tonne QUY160, a 160 tonne capacity crawler crane.

Liugong is one of China's largest earthmoving equipment manufacturers. Its move into the crane sector has come in only the last year, with the opening of a new factory in Bengbu, Anhui Province.

Despite this recent entry into the market, company president Zeng Guang'an says it will sell 1,200 cranes in China this year - equivalent to about a 5% share of the domestic market. It expects this to rise to a 7% to 8% share next year as the range is filled out and production comes up to its full capacity of 3,000 cranes a year.

According to Li Yuning, general manager of the company's crane division, the full range will comprise wheeled mobile cranes up to 100 tonnes in capacity and crawlers up to 260 tonnes to cater for the most popular capacity classes in China. The final additions to the range are expected to be launched at Next November's Bauma China exhibition in Shanghai.

Once Liugong has "built the foundations in China," as Li puts it, it will start to explore export markets. Zeng said it would target developing world countries first, but also expected to sell cranes in Europe and the USA.

Liugong is one of China's most successful exporters in the earthmoving sector, with a network of 180 dealers in 80 countries. It made history earlier this year by being the first Chinese manufacturer to open an overseas factory, with a new wheeled loader plant in Indore, India.