China’s rapid economic growth in the past decade has resulted in a big increase in freight traffic through the country’s seaports. Old ports are being expanded, and new ports built to handle the large growth in container and bulk cargo traffic all along the Chinese coastline.

China’s port expansion programme has provided a strong boost to the domestic port equipment industry, which has enjoyed a strong increase in demand for port cranes of various types, including container cranes and portal cranes along with bulk cargo handling equipment.

State-run China Harbour Engineering (Group) Corporation Ltd, established under the ruling State Council, is China’s largest supplier of port cranes and bulk cargo handling equipment. The organisation controls both Shanghai Zenhua Port Machinery Co Ltd (ZPMC), the world’s largest manufacturer of quayside container cranes, and Shanghai Port Machinery Plant (SPMP), which specialises in the manufacturer of portal cranes and other cranes used in ports along with dry bulk cargo handling equipment.

SPMP’s main market is China, although the company is looking to expand its overseas sales. Although less well known than its associate ZPMC, SPMP also operates large manufacturing facilities, and is due to move part of its production shortly to Changxing Island near Shanghai where ZPMC already operates a large container crane fabrication plant.

Portal and other harbour cranes are SPMP’s major production item. During the past two years, the corporation has won contracts for 145 portal cranes from port authorities throughout China, both from new ports under construction and ports undergoing expansion.

In recent years, SPMP also has supplied portal cranes to the United States, Iraq, and Myanmar. The Port of Rangoon in Myanmar has purchased a 47m, 40t portal crane while BIW of the United States has purchased three cranes – 15t, 150t, and 300t portal cranes. Elsewhere, SPMP has supplied 12 portal cranes to several ports in Iraq since the end of the Saddam regime.

“We hope to export more equipment. It depends on the market conditions. Jib cranes are our main business as they can be used for handling dry cargo when they are fitted with a grab crane,” commented SPMP sales division economist, Li Ding Pei. “Jib cranes in China are used mostly with a grab, but they can be changed for hook use as well. We can purchase or make grab cranes up to 40t capacity. Dry cargo equipment is bigger for us than container yard machinery.”

In China, SPMP’s recent major orders for portal cranes include eight 40t, 45m radius cranes for Tianjin Overseas Mineral Terminal, while Yan Tai Port Bureau in Guangdong in southern China has purchased six 40t, 45m radius cranes. Other large orders include seven 10t, 25m radius cranes for Zhenjiang Port Group and an order of 10 25t, 33m radius cranes from Fangcheng Port Bureau, while the Yingkou Port Group has ordered 13 25t, 35m radius cranes along with two 40t, 44m radius port cranes.

SPMP also supplies other cranes used in ports and harbours, many of which are built to order for clients. Quayside container cranes have been supplied to a number of foreign clients including Bangkok Port in Thailand, Kaohsiung Port in Taiwan and Port of Vancouver in Canada. In China, SPMP has supplied quayside container cranes to Shanghai Port, Tianjin Port, Yin Kou Port, Yan Tai Port and others. The company also supplies rubber tired container gantry cranes to domestic and overseas clients.

Customers for other cranes used in ports include Guangzhou Port in Guangdong, which purchased a 25t floating crane while Zhonggang Port has bought two double trolley 125/63t gantry cranes, along with a 700t overhead crane. In 2003 Zhonggang Port awarded a contract to SPMP for a 2,600t floating crane, which is the largest crane the company has made in recent years.

Other customers include Zhongyuan Nanytong Shipyard of Jiangsu Province has purchased two 300 ton goliath cranes for use in its shipyard, while Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipyard uses two of SPMP’s 600t goliath cranes for its shipbuilding operations.

SPMP has two factories. The Shanghai plant employs 2,000 workers while a factory in Jiangsu Province employs 1,500 workers. The combined total of 3,500 workers includes 800 technical and management staff involved in designing, developing, and building portal and other cranes along with dry bulk cargo loading and unloading equipment.

Currently, SPMP is preparing to vacate its Shanghai factory site as the company’s existing plot of land is part of a riverside area earmarked by the Shanghai government as the site for Shanghai Expo in 2010. SPMP’s Shanghai factory will close at the end of 2006, and move to a new site on nearby Changxing Island.

“The new factory will be much bigger than the present plant,” Li said, “Phase 1 will be ready for us when we move at the end of 2006.”

In addition to moving the Shanghai factory to a new site, SPMP expects future business operations to involve closer co-operation with ZPMC.

Officials at China Harbour Engineering (Group) Corporation are understood to have told SPMP of plans for SPMP and ZPMC co-operate more in bidding for projects in future. Both companies are expected to retain their individual manufacturing capability, however, with precise details of future co-operation still some way from being finalised.

Meanwhile, SPMP associate company ZPMC is strengthening its position as the world’s largest manufacturer of ship-to-shore container cranes, supplying slightly more than half the annual international container crane market. In addition to operating four crane production complexes, ZPMC owns four subsidiary companies that produce equipment and materials for its crane manufacturing and other businesses.

ZPMC’s full range of products includes quayside container cranes, rubber-tyred gantry cranes, bulk material ship loaders and unloaders, bucket-wheel stackers and reclaimers, portal cranes, floating cranes, and engineering vessels. The company has also diversified into manufacturing other large steel structures including large steel bridges.

ZPMC’s cranes and other products are in use at over 150 shipping terminals in 37 countries and regions worldwide. By the end of December 2005 ZPMC had supplied 705 quayside container cranes and had orders in hand to deliver another 128 quayside container cranes in 2006. In addition, at the end of 2005 ZPMC had delivered 1,148 rubber-tyred gantry cranes to customers worldwide and had orders in hand to deliver 308 rubber-tyred gantry cranes to customers in 2006.

ZPMC is expanding production facilities in expectation that the volume of orders will grow in future. The company owns four crane production complexes in Shanghai and the surrounding area at Jiangyin, Changzhou, Zhangjiang and Changxing Island.

The Changxing production site, which was completed in 2001, covers one million sq m, and has a 3.5km coastline. The facility is capable of manufacturing 160 quayside ship-to-shore container cranes each year along with 300 rubber-tyred gantry cranes and 200,000 metric tons of large steel bridge structures.

Plans call for a further 3 million sq m of land to be reclaimed at Changxing, which ZPMC will develop to become its largest production centre.