Skip to main content

Zoomlion raising the bar

Zoomlion has come a long way in 20 years, from small beginnings to becoming a major equipment manufacturer on the international stage. Tower cranes and truck cranes in particular make up the bulk of the firm’s operations and it is a leading producer in this field. Zoomlion makes the world’s largest crawler crane, which has a maximum lift capacity of 3,200tonnes and features a novel design with twin chassis and twin booms. However, Zoomlion is also a major player in the market for concrete pumps both with it
January 6, 2017 Read time: 3 mins
Zoomlion has been carrying out testing of its massive 3,200tonne capacity crawler crane
1175 Zoomlion has come a long way in 20 years, from small beginnings to becoming a major equipment manufacturer on the international stage.

Tower cranes and truck cranes in particular make up the bulk of the firm’s operations and it is a leading producer in this field. Zoomlion makes the world’s largest crawler crane, which has a maximum lift capacity of 3,200tonnes and features a novel design with twin chassis and twin booms.

However, Zoomlion is also a major player in the market for concrete pumps both with its own brand and the Italian 2203 CIFA range. When Zoomlion bought Italian firm Cifa in 2008, this move made it the largest manufacturer of concrete pumps in the world, although the subsequent acquisitions of 1259 Putzmeister by 1170 Sany and 4991 Schwing by 2490 XCMG will have changed this situation. Innovations include a concrete pump featuring an incredible 101m reach that features a high strength, low weight carbon fibre boom structure. The firm makes a substantial investment in research and development, putting around 60% of its sales revenue into this area, as well as having an extremely diverse product line. The majority of the road machinery that Zoomlion manufactures is for the Chinese market. Those road machines that are exported largely go to Chinese contractors to work on overseas projects.

But exports do figure highly in Zoomlion’s plans and the target for the future is that by 2015 some 30% of the company’s production run will be sold outside of China. This represents a considerable expansion of overseas sales as at present (discounting the sales of the Italian Cifa business) some 10% of Zoomlion’s sales are outside of China.

A spokesperson for the company said, “The main markets for us are the Middle East, South America, Africa, the Pan-Pacific Region and the Russian Federation .”

A novel approach has been the use of two separate brands for concrete pumps, with both the Zoomlion and Cifa names being used. There is a market overlap between the two for some territories but in general, Cifa units are aimed at the US and European markets while Zoomlion pumps are sold in other territories. Its acquisition of the JOST flat top crane technology in 2011 will also help develop its share of the competitive world market for tower cranes, including variants with CE approval for sale into Europe.

Elsewhere in Asia Zoomlion sees potential and the company has established a joint venture with an Indian company. The spokesperson said, “We’re building a factory in India next year to focus on tower cranes and we believe we’ll achieve more than 45% annual growth in sales in India.”

The excavator business is growing within Zoomlion and the company recently sold a package of excavators to Inner Mongolia in a deal worth around $47.6 million, the biggest single contract the firm has ever had. The equipment was bought by a single company for extraction operations and included 203 units in all, with 30tonne excavators making up the bulk of the deal.

%$Linker: 2 Asset <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 2 44418 0 oLinkExternal www.zoomlion.com www.zoomlion.com false /EasySiteWeb/GatewayLink.aspx?alId=44418 true false%>

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Sany’s world largest 3600 crawler crane at bauma China 2012
    January 6, 2017
    Boasting the world’s largest crawler crane – the Sany 3600 –in its line-up at bauma China 2012, Sany is looking to make a big impression at the Shanghai-based event. The Chinese firm’s giant is claimed to have a lifting capacity of 3600tonnes and is said to benefit from the use of sophisticated design methods such as limit state design, digital prototyping and top-down design. Upon its launch last year, industrial experts were said by Sany to have remarked that the 3600 crawler crane had been born from the
  • Sany’s world largest 3600 crawler crane at bauma China 2012
    November 26, 2012
    Boasting the world’s largest crawler crane – the Sany 3600 –in its line-up at bauma China 2012, Sany is looking to make a big impression at the Shanghai-based event. The Chinese firm’s giant is claimed to have a lifting capacity of 3600tonnes and is said to benefit from the use of sophisticated design methods such as limit state design, digital prototyping and top-down design. Upon its launch last year, industrial experts were said by Sany to have remarked that the 3600 crawler crane had been born from the
  • XCMG sets out six stage path for future plans
    October 14, 2013
    XCMG has seen strong exports, with one deal in particular providing a major boost to turnover - Mike Woof writes It is rare that a single machine order can provide a substantial portion of a large manufacturer’s annual results. However the firm’s massive contract signed with the Venezuelan Government was a major boost to XCMG; the supply of no less than 6025 machines in a deal worth some US$750 million. This order came at an important time for the company when the world demand for construction equipment sl
  • Putzmeister unveils faster and more efficient concrete pumps and sprayers
    January 6, 2017
    The new Putzmeister BSA 1407 D stationary concrete pump has been completely overhauled for Bauma says the German manufacturer, and the new machine features an easy-to-clean fibre-glass reinforced hood as well as an improved hopper (RS909), operating data clearly displayed on the unit’s patented in-cab Ergonic Graphic Display (EGD), and a sophisticated electronic fault management system. All of the essential operating elements of the new BSA 1407 D are easily accessible, claims Putzmeister, in an effort to m