Zoomlion Hoisting Machinery Used on a Cable-Stayed Bridge Project Near Moroccan Capital

Recently, the Hoisting Machinery Branch Company successfully disassembled and assembled four cranes for use in the construction of a cable-stayed bridge near the Moroccan Capital, Rabat.
In 2010, the Major Bridge Engineering Bureau of China's Ministry of Railways successfully bid for a contract worth tens of millions of dollars to build a cable-stayed bridge as part of the Rabat ring road. The three-span cable-stayed bridge will be 951.66m long. The project is the first investment by the Kingdom of Morocco in a cable-stayed bridge, and it is the first overseas project undertaken by the Major Bridge Engineering Bureau, making it a highly significant venture. As a long-term strategic partner, the Major Bridge Engineering Bureau purchased multiple items of Zoomlion construction equipment for the project, including several truck cranes, tower cranes, concrete batching plants, concrete pump trucks and truck-mounted mixers.
To maintain its good working relationship with the Bureau, the Hoisting Machinery Branch Company not only sent staff to escort the new equipment to the site to oversee the handover and inspection of the machinery as well as provide safe operation and maintenance training to operators, but also provided remote installation and maintenance guidance. In addition, starting in 2011, Zoomlion provided annual on-site inspections and spare parts inventories for the customer to minimize device failure rates, and the customer expressed satisfaction with the services provided by Zoomlion.
When the project reached 60% completion, a number of technical problems were encountered. During the early stages of the project Zoomlion truck cranes were located on the ground, but in the latter stages they were required to work on the bridge. After three months of work, four truck cranes were successfully assembled on the bridge by Zoomlion workers within the agreed time frame, thereby ensuring the smooth progress of the bridge project,to which the client has expressed great satisfaction. This set a new record for the disassembly and assembly of truck cranes abroad and has opened up a new area of paid overseas services for Zoomlion.

Zoomlion Publishes Half-Year Report: Strategic Transformation Shows Signs of Bearing Fruit

On August 29, Zoomlion released its performance report for the first half of 2014, which showed the company had operating income of RMB 13.989 billion, and made a net profit for the parent company of approximately RMB 900 million, which means the overall gross profit margin for the year essentially stayed the same as last year.
The report states that the continued slowdown in national real estate investment has resulted in falling demand for and decreased revenues from the company's main construction machinery products, namely concrete pump trucks, truck-mounted mixers and tower cranes. In order to control risk and ensure quality of operations, the company is continuing to adhere to a strict sales policy of quality assurance, which will help build a strong basis for continued growth and increase income from products that have been affected in the first half of the year.
The report shows that operating income from environmental machinery rose 16.51% compared to the same period last year, which offset declines in other sectors to some extent. The report notes that because of the growing importance of environmental protection, local governments are increasing procurement of related equipment, resulting in large year on year growth in sales of products including road washers, road sweepers and waste compactor trucks.
Investment institutions believe that as national macro-level fiscal and monetary policies on easing money flows, reducing cash reserve ratios and refinancing bear fruit in the second half of 2014, infrastructure investment growth will remain high and the industrial economy will buck the trend and show signs of growth. At the same time, it is thought "microstimulation" policies, including redeveloping run-down areas, constructing low-income housing and railway investment, will offset the effects of declining real estate investment to some extent.
Industry experts point out that the the export environment will gradually improve in the second half of the year, boosting overseas sales of domestic enterprises, and equipment manufacturing enterprises will be able to use different means, including Chinese funding overseas, foreign aid projects and building local plants, to strengthen their expansion into markets in Africa, Central and South Asia, and South America. Compared to the first half of the year, the construction machinery industry is expected to grow steadily, which will improve corporate profits and investor confidence.
The acquisition of Raxtar of Holland has extended and improved Zoomlion's industrial technology, and the acquisition of Detank Heavy Industry has helped cross-border growth within the industrial sector. "If one can say that construction machinery helped Zoomlion achieve its position as an industry leader in its first 20 years, then environmental machinery and agricultural machinery will help Zoomlion respond to adjustments within the industry and help it stand out in the course of its strategic transformation,"said Mr. Shen Ke, Secretary of the Zoomlion Board, while explaining the company's recent acquisitions.
Analysts believe that public products related to people's livelihood and public consumption-based infrastructure investment and construction, such as equipment for rural waste and water treatment and air quality improvement, are set to become new growth points.
As society shows increasing concern for environmental issues, governments are intensifying investment in environmental protection, which has resulted in the rapid development of the environmental industry and led some to predict that compound annual growth will stand above 20% for the next five to ten years.
"In the first half of 2014, the company's environmental machinery sector accounted for 12% of overall revenue. In the second half of 2014, rapid growth in sales of environmental machinery will continue, and the sub-sectors of domestic waste disposal, food waste disposal, construction waste disposal and sewage treatment will usher in better opportunities for development." said Mr. Shen Ke. He concluded, "We hope that the acquisition of Detank Heavy Industry will allow Zoomlion to apply the experience and resources it has accumulated in the construction machinery industry to agricultural machinery and integrate both sides' advantageous resources so that it can enter the high-end market in agricultural machinery and build a new Zoomlion."