Daewoo Heavy Industries Yantai has acquired a 25 percent share of the Chinese excavator market as of March, up from last year’s 22 percent, according to an article that appeared on the Asia Intelligence Wire.
The company, which began manufacturing excavators and forklifts in China in 1996, sold as many excavators in March as its total Chinese output for the year 2000. Daewoo Heavy Industries and Machinery, based in South Korea, spent $63 million in 1994 to set up the plant in the Yantai Economic and Technological Development Zone.
“As the first exclusively foreign-owned excavator-producer, we came here with ‘China dreams’ in the 1990s,” Daewoo general manager Kenneth Chae said in the article. “Today we are realizing those dreams.”
According to Chae, it took the company only seven years to make and sell its 10,000th excavator in China. Last year, Daewoo had sales of $363 million in China, which puts it in first place both in terms of sales value and market share, according to the article.
While China’s recent construction boom is a likely factor in the company’s success in Asia, Chae said the increase in sales is attributed to several reasons: China’s sustainable economic development and investment environment, good customer service and the adoption of flexible operational strategies. In addition to setting up 12 branch offices with 65 sales agents, Daewoo is also offering customers installment plans.
The company’s China production facilities for Daewoo excavators have become larger and more advanced than its facilities in South Korea. With the recent completion of a third excavator production line in China, Daewoo now produces 15,000 units a year, and manufactures 3,000 forklifts in the country.
