New president's global ambitions

摘要

Appointed in May last year, Dinggui Gao is now a few months into his new role as president of Sandvik Construction. A little unusually for the construction equipment industry, he comes from another sector, having most recently worked as truck manufacturer Man Group's representative at its Chinese joint venture, Sinotruck. He has also held various positions with Honeywell, Eagle Ottawa and Bosch. And when iC met Mr Gao at Sandvik Construction's head office in Stockholm, his enthusiasm for the new role was clear. "It has been very exciting for me. I have been able to visit quite a few customers and been to all of our sites," he said. Notwithstanding Mr Gao's enthusiasm, there is no getting away from the fact that Sandvik Construction has had a tough time over the last few quarters, as have most construction equipment manufacturers. Its sales last year were down -11.2% on 2012 at SEK 8.6 billion (US$ 1.32 billion), it barely squeaked into the black with an operating profit of SEK 110 million (US$ 17 million) and the order intake was down -6.5% to SEK 8.51 billion (US$ 1.3 billion).