LGMG opens European office

Chinese aerial platform manufacturer LGMG opened its first European facility on Friday 28 September at a ceremony in Rotterdam attended by dealers and customers.

The 1500 m2 warehouse and office at Spijkenisse, Rotterdam, will hold a stock of between 80 and 100 scissor lifts as well as €200,000 worth of parts and will service LGMG’s dealers and customers in Europe.

The facility is part of LGMG’s aggressive global expansion plan. It aims to open a US facility in the first half of next year, and will expanding its product range to include articulated and telescopic booms to add to its scissors, with the first articulated models launched in Europe during Bauma next year.

Speaking at the opening, Yu Mengsheng, Chairman of LGMG Group, said Chinese OEMs were becoming more accepted in global markets; “I want our partners to have confidence in our operation in Europe. We are not a small company – we will have RMB30 billion revenues this year – and we want to be one of the biggest in the market.”

LGMG Group is already active throughout the world via its two joint venture companies: SDLG with Volvo CE for earthmoving equipment, and a more recent joint venture with Sandvik for mining machines.

Among those attending the opening ceremony were representatives from Netherlands dealer Hocap and German manufacturer PB Lifttechnik, for which LGMG does some manufacturing. Spanish rental company Servei was also in Rotterdam for the opening. Other visitors were from potential dealers.

Ares Song, international sales manager at LGMG, said the company intended to sell through dealers in Europe and protect the profits of dealers. In the event that a large rental company wanted to deal direct with the manufacturer, Mr Song said that LGMG would work in cooperation with local dealers to fulfil orders.

The European operation will be managed by Kevin Liu, Director of LGMG Europe, working alongside 10 other staff, with more local service and administration staff to be recruited.

A fuller report will appear in the next issue of Access International.