STRONG CONDITIONS IN CHINA NOT HELPING STRONG MACHINERY

摘要

It is perhaps ironic that China's Strong Construction Machinery has not really benefited from the strong recovery in the Chinese excavator market that has taken place since the third quarter of 2016. The company's sales of new machines continued to fall to 530 units last year, less than 10% of its peak sales. The main reason for this poor performance is thought to be the disruption of its distribution network. When it was founded, Strong was unique in that it was not only the sole manufacturer that totally relied on excavators, but it was also the only one that had two factories manufacturing two different brands of excavators that were distributed through two different dealer networks. This strategy seemed be quite effective when the market was expanding, and its sales soared from 600 units in 2009 to 2890 units in 2010 and to 5440 units in 2011.