Sany Heavy Industry puts American HQ in Peachtree City

Chinese heavy construction equipment maker SANY Heavy Industry Co. Ltd. is spending $30 million over five years to build its first North American assembly plant in Peachtree City, Ga.

The plant will employ 200, with the potential to create 600 over the next decade.

Phase one will consist of a 400,000-square-foot assembly/testing/training/office site in the Peachtree City Industrial Park. Construction on phase one is expected to take between 18 to 24 months. Phase one will employ 200 people over the first five years of operation. Future phases at the Fayette County site will include additional product assembly lines as well as a corporate office campus and R&D facility and will employ up to 400 additional people, for a total employment of 600.

Changsha, China-based Sany Heavy Industry is the largest concrete-pumping equipment company in China, with 8,000 employees and 2006 sales of about $594 million. Sales, service, assembly, testing and distribution, as well as research and development, will all take place at the new facilities, which will serve as corporate headquarters for Sany America Inc.

'We chose metro Atlanta and Georgia to build our U.S. headquarters and assembly center for several reasons,' said Sany America president Lincoln Liang. 'North America has a large market for our products, and Georgia occupies an important geographical location with convenient transportation. Most importantly, support for foreign investment from the state and the local governments in metro Atlanta is systematic and well-structured. They understand Chinese businesses.'