On November 15th, the groundbreaking ceremony for the “SANY South Africa Headquarters Base” project took place in Johannesburg, South Africa. With an investment of 300 million rand, the project aims to become SANY’s regional manufacturing center, logistics center, and talent center upon completion.
In early December, a group of employees from India were undergoing road machinery operation training at SANY’s training base in Loudi, Hunan. Recently, SANY’s road machinery localization project in India was successfully completed and put into operation.
These initiatives reflect SANY Group’s rapid response to seizing opportunities in overseas markets after expanding into BRICS countries.
On August 24, 2023, the BRICS countries decided to invite Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates as formal members of the BRICS cooperation mechanism, starting from January 1, 2024. The number of BRICS cooperation mechanism members increased from 5 to 11.
“As a global leading Chinese construction machinery manufacturer, SANY Group actively participates in and deeply engages in the significant historical process of BRICS cooperation, considering the markets of BRICS countries as historical opportunities that SANY cannot afford to miss,” said Xiang Wenbo, Secretary of the Party Committee and Acting Chairman of SANY Group, and Chairman of SANY Heavy Industry, during his speech as Vice Chairman of the Industry Innovation Alliance at the First BRICS Innovation Base Entrepreneurs Forum on November 17.
Data shows that SANY Group has accumulated sales exceeding 70 billion yuan in Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa, and the six countries invited to join the BRICS cooperation mechanism. In 2022 alone, the annual sales reached 14,500 units, with sales exceeding 13 billion yuan. In the first three quarters of 2023, sales exceeded 14 billion yuan, accounting for about 40% of SANY Group’s overall overseas sales for the current period.
Taking the first step into BRICS in 2002 was also SANY’s first step towards globalization. In 2001, the concept of “BRICS countries” was born. After this expansion, the BRICS countries’ share of the world’s population increased from 42% to 47%, the economic aggregate increased from 26% to 29%, and the total volume of goods trade increased from 18% to 21%. BRICS became more prominent and influential.
Hu Yishan, Chief Consultant of the Malaysia Pacific Research Center, believes, “Through ‘BRICS+’ cooperation, China is driving other emerging market countries with similar development goals, using platforms like South-South cooperation, to achieve common development.”
As a global leading manufacturer of engineering machinery, SANY actively participates in this significant historical process of BRICS cooperation. In 2002, SANY embarked on its journey of globalization, with the first batch of products exported overseas, including four motor graders shipped to India, marking its first foray into the BRICS market.
“In the 21 years since then, SANY has grown rapidly in India,” said Zhu Dacheng, Chairman of SANY India, to the “China Economic Weekly.” SANY has invested over 750 million rupees in a local manufacturing plant in Pune, India. Currently, SANY’s market share in India has exceeded 25,000 units.
Zhu Dacheng mentioned that currently, SANY’s cranes, piling machinery, and front-end lifting products hold the top market share in India, and the development of excavators and mining wide-body trucks is flourishing.
Not only in India, the rapid development of the engineering machinery market in various BRICS countries has brought tremendous growth opportunities to the Chinese engineering machinery industry, represented by SANY.
Xiao Hua, General Manager of SANY Brazil, said that Brazil, as one of the top ten economies globally, with over 8 million square kilometers of land and a population of 200 million, has a considerable market size. When SANY officially started sales in Brazil in 2010, the annual sales were only a few million yuan, and it is expected to reach 30 times that this year.
Argentina is the second-largest engineering machinery equipment market in the Latin American region. “The sales in 2022 were 20 times that of the first year, with the equipment inventory exceeding 1,200 units, and the brand influence and value significantly increased,” said Ma Xianlin, General Manager of SANY Latin America.
The engineering machinery market in Africa is also thriving.
Liu Guosheng, General Manager of SANY East Africa, introduced that Ethiopia is one of the top three populous countries in Africa, the location of the African Union headquarters, and the “Cape of Good Hope” connecting Africa and the Eastern world. The country’s infrastructure is relatively backward, leading to a significant demand for construction projects.
In 2006, SANY entered the Ethiopian market. Among them, the Adama II wind farm with a total installed capacity of 153 megawatts used 102 SANY SE7715 wind turbines, making it the largest wind turbine export order in China to date.
In 2005, SANY’s first piece of equipment appeared in South Africa. The head of SANY South Africa stated that over the past 18 years, the sales of SANY South Africa have risen from the million-yuan level to an estimated 800 million RMB in 2023.
“Almost all major projects involve SANY equipment”
Over the years, cooperation in the infrastructure sector among BRICS countries has expanded and deepened. Infrastructure construction naturally requires engineering machinery.
In the past two decades, SANY equipment can be found everywhere in BRICS countries: in Brazil, whether it’s World Cup venues or Olympic venues, SANY engineering machinery has made significant contributions. In Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, SANY’s ultra-high-pressure trailer pump set a record for the world’s highest pumping; in India, the world’s tallest “Statue of Unity,” SANY heavy lifting equipment completed 80% of the lifting work. Since the second half of 2021, in the construction of the NEOM project, a super city in Saudi Arabia, more than 1,600 units of SANY-branded equipment have been involved.
Liu Guosheng said that in East Africa, the SANY brand’s recognition has gone from being unknown when it first entered the market to being well-known today.
Zhang Liang, General Manager of SANY South Africa, said, “Almost all major projects involve SANY equipment. For example, as early as 2013, the construction of the largest thermal power station project in Africa, the ‘Kusile Power Plant,’ involved 60 units of SANY equipment, undertaking the crucial lifting tasks for the power station.”
“SANY concrete equipment and lifting equipment maintain the first market share in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Not only the Burj Khalifa but also many key projects, such as the ‘Belt and Road’ demonstration project Dubai Hassyan Clean Coal Power Station, also use a lot of SANY equipment,” said Wang Fengkai, General Manager of SANY Saudi Arabia.
Xiang Wenbo told the “China Economic Weekly,” “In recent years, SANY Group has deeply cultivated the BRICS country markets, not only participating in infrastructure construction, port
operations, hydrogen development, wind power generation, and many other aspects but also directly exporting advanced capacity and building lighthouse factories, bringing employment training, which has deeply integrated into the BRICS country market environment.”
“Taking the lead and operating locally,” Establishing Intelligent Manufacturing Factories in BRICS Countries
In the first half of 2023, SANY Group’s listed company, SANY Heavy Industry, achieved international sales revenue of 22.466 billion yuan, a substantial year-on-year growth of 35.87%. International revenue accounted for 56.88% of total operating income, with a significant portion of the company’s income and profits coming from the international market.
Localization is the key to SANY’s global success. Xiang Wenbo stated that SANY has implemented a business strategy of “taking the lead, operating locally, and prioritizing service,” transitioning from exporting products in the past to integrating global resources to support global business. BRICS countries are the markets where SANY prioritizes its global layout.
In Russia, SANY has established a localized sales team and launched a series of engineering machinery equipment adapted to local working conditions, such as the production of low-temperature version cranes suitable for extremely cold environments.
SANY’s ambitious plan for intelligent factory construction in BRICS countries is also noteworthy.
Teaching someone to fish is better than giving them a fish. Xiang Wenbo believes that the overlapping of the fourth industrial revolution and the third energy revolution has put the engineering machinery industry in an unprecedented super-technological window. Globalization, digitization, and decarbonization have become industry consensus.
Under this technological trend, SANY’s localized intelligent manufacturing bases in BRICS countries will undoubtedly drive local technological progress.
SANY’s Beijing piling machine factory and Changsha Factory 18 are the only two “lighthouse factories” in the global heavy equipment industry recognized by the World Economic Forum in Davos, marking the company’s leading position in intelligent manufacturing in the global heavy equipment industry.
Xiang Wenbo explained that since 2022, SANY has started planning the construction of overseas lighthouse factories, replicating and promoting more than 100 domestic advanced manufacturing technologies, including automatic sorting, robot welding, machine one-key clamping, automatic spraying, automatic tightening, and unmanned distribution.
For SANY itself, this is an important step in building the core competitiveness of “global manufacturing.”
Xiao Hua believes that after more than 10 years of deep cultivation, mainstream customers in the Brazilian market already highly recognize the SANY brand, and various product market shares are continuously rising. Continuing to deepen localization manufacturing can better support market development needs.
SANY India’s manufacturing plant in Pune is a successful example. According to data, the manufacturing plant has invested more than 750 million rupees, producing more than 50 models locally, driving the common development of local suppliers.
Zhu Dacheng introduced, “The Indian factory is SANY’s first overseas investment project, employing nearly 1,700 people. Our development strategy in India is ‘Make in India, for India and Global,’ fully leveraging local procurement cost advantages, labor advantages, language advantages, and geographical and tariff advantages, radiating to South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and other regions, aiming to reshape SANY Heavy Industry in India.”
SANY Heavy Industry’s semi-annual report for 2023 shows that in the first half of 2023, SANY Heavy Industry vigorously promoted the layout of global manufacturing. Construction of the second phase of the Indonesian and Indian intelligent manufacturing plants and the South African intelligent manufacturing plant was launched, further enhancing overseas manufacturing capacity.
The “SANY South Africa Headquarters Base” project, which started construction on November 15th, is the latest move in its overseas factory construction. According to the plan, the base will be completed one year later, with an annual production capacity of 1,000 excavators and other engineering machinery equipment, and a medium and long-term production capacity is expected to reach 3,000 units per year.
Xiang Wenbo stated that BRICS countries have become an essential engine of the global economy. SANY will seize this historical opportunity tightly, achieve resource sharing, wisdom sharing, and opportunity sharing, and will strengthen cooperation with BRICS countries in the future, jointly promoting local infrastructure construction and high-quality economic development.