Wirtgen targets developing markets

The Wirtgen Group is committed to expanding its presence in “increasingly important” emerging markets, according to joint group president Stefan Wirtgen.

Speaking alongside his brother and co-364 Wirtgen Group president, Jürgen Wirtgen, at a press conference during the recent Wirtgen Mineral Technology Days 2012 event attended by over 1,400 industry professionals from more than 60 countries, Stefan Wirtgen said: “The markets in the last few years have shifted and emerging markets are playing an increasingly important role. They are taking up a larger share of our sales.”

In stressing the efforts of the Wirtgen Group, owners of the Wirtgen, 261 Kleemann, 1194 Vögele and 228 Hamm equipment brands, to expand its share of emerging market trade, Stefan Wirtgen highlighted the Group’s factory in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The 360 worker site makes hot mix asphalt plants and pavers under the 6241 Ciber name, as well as a model from the Wirtgen planer line and a Hamm compactor. The site also has a training centre and testing ground.

At Langfang, near Chinese capital Beijing, the Wirtgen Group now has a 220 employee, 300,000m² facility building Wirtgen planers, Vögele asphalt pavers and Hamm compactors. The site also houses a sales and service centre with workshop and a parts warehouse.

Stefan Wirtgen described the site as a, “…very sophisticated new facility.”
In addition to its Brazil and China operations, the Wirtgen Group produces Hamm soil compactors at its factory in Pune, India. The site also houses a sales and service centre and a parts depot.

The Indian facility will see further additions to its product range too. “A current project is to produce a paver locally in India,” said Stefan Wirtgen.

“Production of this will need a bit of time as we have to extend the factory. We are working on the design of this paver.

Maybe in the first or second quarter of 2013, we can start production.”

But in spite of Wirtgen’s ambitions to expand machine sales in emerging markets, Stefan Wirtgen stressed that this would not lead to the company neglecting its traditionally strong western markets.

The group has made a series of investments in its German manufacturing operations in recent years. This has resulted in new factory capacity for the Wirtgen, Hamm and Vögele ranges at Windhagen, Tirschenreuth and Ludwigshafen. This last is an entirely new facility constructed at a greenfield site and is one of the world’s largest and most sophisticated factories manufacturing asphalt pavers. The group also bought the Kleemann crushing equipment business and established a new factory at Göppingen as the old plant could not be expanded sufficiently to meet the Wirtgen Group’s growth targets.

During the press conference Jürgen Wirtgen said the Wirtgen Group expects to achieve record revenues of €1.8 billion in 2012.