ZPMC continues its remarkable growth in sales

The Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery Company (ZPMC) continues to prove that Chinese manufacturers can be a major force in the international crane business.

In the first 10 weeks of the year the container crane manufacturer took a staggering $270m worth of orders.

Established in 1992, it has seen its output rise from $60m in 1995 to $170m last year. It expects to complete at least $240m worth of contracts this year.

ZPMC overtook Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan in 1998 as the world’s leading container crane maker.

Last year a research report from French securities house BNP Prime Peregrine said of the company: “Stringent management and superb product quality put Zhenhua Port Machinery at the top of the global crane market league.” Any devaluation in the Chinese renminbi would only increase the ZPMC’s export-led success, the report added.

Though ZPMC has submitted some aggressively priced bids, there appear to be none of the question marks concerning product quality that hand over other Chinese manufacturers.

Last October it signed a deal with controls manufacturer ABB under which the European company supplies ZPMC with electrical and control equipment, including its proprietary automation and anti-sway technology. Previously ZPMC tended to use controls supplied by GE of the USA.

Among ports outside of China that have chosen ZPMC cranes are: Sudan; Oman; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Bremen, Germany; Singapore; Djibouti, Ethiopia; Miami, Tacoma, Oakland and Norfolk in the USA; and Vancouver and Halifax in Canada. The Bremen order for eight cranes, taken in mid-1999, was the first time that a German contract for port machinery had gone to Asia.