Hitachi Construction Machinery restores operations in China

Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., the world’s third-biggest maker of building equipment, has restored operations in China after shuttering its plant there for half a month last year as the economy cooled.

The excavator plant, in the eastern province of Anhui, is gradually increasing production since the end of 2012 as demand for small diggers used in housing recovers, President Yuichi Tsujimoto said in an interview from the company’s Tokyo headquarters on Feb. 18. The factory now operates five days a week after its partial shutdown cut production to as low as 25 percent of capacity, he said.

“We expect demand will recover at a moderate pace rather than the V-shaped rebound we saw in the past when demand came back from declines,” Tsujimoto said in the interview. “The company will need to monitor the market for the next two weeks to gauge how strong demand will be in the post Lunar New Year period,” a peak season for construction equipment, he said.

Sales in China may grow more than 10 percent for the year starting in April because of spending on stimulus measures and infrastructure that Tsujimoto says will spur industry demand beginning in China’s summer season.

Hitachi Construction Machinery shut the Hefei plant in August for two weeks a month as construction activity slowed -- the first time the plant has closed for more than a week since it was set up in 1995. Total retail sales of construction equipment in China, the world’s biggest market, slid about 19 percent in 2012 to $32.3 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. (Source: Bloomberg)