The Chinese garbage truck manufacturer looking to expand into the global access market

Infore Environmental Technology, a Chinese manufacturer, is best known for making the distinctive green and grey electric garbage trucks and road sweepers seen on many streets across the People’s Republic and beyond.

Yet, last year the Shenzhen-listed company announced plans to become one of its largest global players in the aerial lift market as part of an ambitious international expansion.

International expansion

“We really thought we should get into something else to expand our product range beyond our core offering. And we decided on access equipment,” managing director Yu Xiaoyue tells Access International.

For most other companies, such plans could be dismissed as pie in the sky, but for Infore, based in China’s central powerhouse Changsha, the numbers bear credence.

To put Infore’s size into context, China’s total annual market for environmental products is RMB 20 billion (US$2.8 billion) per year. Infore takes 40% of the market, or RMB 8 billion (US$1.1 billion).

Yu believes that the company is well placed to adapt the battery electric and autonomous tech the company is already incorporating in some of its expansive environmental line across sewer dredging trucks, kitchen waste units, garbage compactors, water sprinklers and road maintenance vehicles into new boom and scissor lifts.

An Infore road sweeper. Photo: KHL

“The access industry is increasingly focusing on new energy and intelligence, and we have the ability to meet these expectations with our technology,” Yu says.

While environmental solutions continue to provide steady revenues and profits, Yu also believes that the company must broaden its horizons to help it adapt to domestic market fluctuations and expand internationally.

“We are aiming at internationalisation. Environmental solutions could be a bit slow for this, whereas access equipment is ideal for the international side of the company,” he says.

Certainly, since the global pandemic, a comparatively sluggish performance in the domestic economy has encouraged more and more Chinese companies to expand overseas in search of growth.

Plus, Yu says, expanding into the access market makes sense because there are already links to the construction sector in the products Infore makes. “We have a good supply chain so it easy for us to enter the market,” Yu adds.

So far, the company has already dabbled in the access market, launching its own in-house-designed 22m working height truck mounted aerial platform in 2021.

And Infore provides advanced tracking and digital project management services across the vast contracts it has with the Chinese government.

The company expects its access division to reach RMB 200 – 300 million (US$27.7 million – US$41.5 million) in revenue in the domestic market this year.

Acquisition plans

“From next year we will go abroad and start global sales and in five years we aim to reach RMB 5 billion (US$692.6 million)” says Yu. “This may sound ambitious but it can be achieved through acquisition,”

Certainly, the company says it has set its sights on acquiring major global manufacturers and, it says, has the means to do it.

Infore is part of a much larger holding company Midea, which produces electrical products for the home, ranging from refrigerators to washing machines. Midea has an annual turnover of RMB 400 billion (US$55.4 billion), half of that comes from export – a great deal more than Infore which currently only derives 9.5% of its revenue from business abroad.

Infore scissor and boom lifts. Photo: KHL

“As a group we have the experience and skills in global acquisitions and have the financial backing that will give support to AWP (aerial work platform) growth,” says Yu.

“We have the resources and now consider AWPs as a core product type of the company. In the future we will upgrade to intelligent products and new energies. I do not see this as a big challenge.”

Although the aerial lift markets in China, the US and Europe are all showing signs of slowing down, making it harder for existing players to turn a profit, Infore says that it has the financial clout to stay the course.

“Strong financial support is key to survival. It means that some of the existing access manufacturers, which do not have that, will melt away, and in the next three to five years it will be the stronger players that survive,” Yu says.

The biggest reason pushing Infore to acquire an overseas competitor is the growing number of tariffs being levied by overseas governments on Chinese imports.

Since the pandemic, both the US and EU administrations have imposed steep duties on imported MEWPs, arguing that they are being sold at artificially low prices which prevent domestic firms from competing. Then, this year, US President Donald Trump has imposed further tariffs on imports to the USA, with Chinese imports particularly hard hit.

Ahead of any potential international acquisitions, Infore says it will produce MEWPs for China at its Changsha factory, which is being fitted out for the purpose. The 50,000 square metre facility aims to produce 12,000 – 15,000 scissor lifts a year and 4,000 boom lifts.

Infore will also be able to use the group’s existing facilities in Thailand, as well as a factory in Italy. The Thailand factory has 5,000 square metres of space, with potential plans to expand it next year, while the Italy plant comprises 2,500 square metres.

Apart from those, the company is also researching the possibility of opening a new factory in either Turkey or Hungary. Once that research is finalised the company will choose whether to move European MEWP production to either of these locations - or to stick with the existing plant in Italy.

On top of that the company owns an additional 120,000 square metres of land close to its headquarters in Changsha, which Infore says can also be used for MEWP production in the future.

Automation plans

Looking ahead, Infore says it plans to use its skills in digitalisation and automation when focusing on product design. The company has already pinpointed areas of potential for automation for the access industry, such providing an automated robotic tool attached to a boom for painting work.

“We will start with new energy technology, then equipment intelligence, then move on to automation for certain environments,” Yu says.

Yet with the domestic construction market still slow and many local rental firms struggling to meet payments for the equipment they purchase, Yu says that the company’s domestic focus will be on the rather more prosaic matter of ensuring the customers they sell to remain solvent.

“The goal is now to focus on the quality of our production but also choosing the quality of our customer that are able to meet payment terms for equipment,” he adds.