Sany excavators at a Sany Heavy Industry training center in Wuhan. Credit: Imaginechina via AP Images
Companies have long paid top dollar to be the first brand that travelers see on arrival at Hong Kong International Airport. But the name they are likely to spot immediately these days isn’t HSBC or some high-end retailer. Thanks to the army of excavators working on the airport’s expansion, it’s Chinese company Sany.
Along with China’s other heavy equipment makers, Sany Group is enjoying a boom in international business. Despite inflationary pressures and high freight costs, global demand for excavators and diggers is strong, owing in part to the mining and oil boom in 2022 stemming from high commodity prices.
China’s real estate crisis and broader economic slowdown mean that its equipment providers are looking to international markets to drive sales, competing with industry leaders like the U.S.’s Caterpillar and Japan’s Komatsu. Top Chinese firms including Sany Heavy Industry (Sany’s listed subsidiary), Zoomlion and XCMG have experienced double-digit growth
Exclusive longform investigative journalism, Q&As, news and analysis, and data on Chinese business elites and corporations. We publish China scoops you won't find anywhere else.
A weekly curated reading list on China from David Barboza, Pulitzer Prize-winning former Shanghai correspondent for The New York Times.
A daily roundup of China finance, business and economics headlines.
We offer discounts for groups, institutions and students. Go to our Subscriptions page for details.
When China announced it was ending quarantine requirements for incoming travelers, Chinese people collectively picked up their phones to search popular travel apps like Ctrip and Qunar. Owned by travel giant Trip.com, these apps helped Chinese travelers explore the world pre-pandemic and facilitated the human-to-human interactions that drove China's rise. But many of today's travelers seem to be sticking closer to home, and their hesitation to get back to the jetsetting habits of the past 20 years has far-reaching implications — especially for Trip.com.
The professor talks about China's real estate bubble; if China can develop a modern financial system without rule of law; and why it's not China that is reshaping the global order, but the world's response...
