HIGH PROFILE
LiuGong at 62 – reaching new heights
Paul Moore had the opportunity to visit one of China's
largest mining and construction OEMs, LiuGong, at its HQ
in the city of Liuzhou, and focuses here in on the
company's unique background, breadth of offering and
specifically its place in the mining market
Around that time, company President Guang’an
Zeng took over the overseas businesses. He led a
group to North Africa and hired the company’s first
ever overseas agent in Morocco. The company
upgraded its export trade to full international
marketing, which enabled targeted support from
R&D, manufacturing systems, and distribution
channels. In 2003, LiuGong started to establish
overseas marketing networks. In 2009, its first
overseas plant was put into operation in India.
The company’s influence globally increased
rapidly to the point where it soon became the most
recognisable Chinese brand in construction and
quarrying, in the 1990s and early 2000s. Since then
SANY and XCMG in particular have also become
giants in the world market, but LiuGong was the
first and retains its importance and loyal brand
following.
LiuGong's largest wheel loader, the 8128H, working hard at an iron ore mine in Mongolia, where it
has to endure extreme temperatures. It is part of a fleet of more than 10 large-tonnage LiuGong
machines at the mine
LiuGong is one of the most famous names in
construction equipment, not just in China but
around the world, with a strong heritage
going back to 1958 when a 500 strong team was
assembled from Shanghai and other parts of China
in Longtengbei, then a remote corner of Liuzhou in
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
The company established its reputation in China
first for quality, premium technology and service. Its
ZL50C loader for example, became a legend in the
industry back in the 1990s, and has now sold over
200,000 units. In 1993 it was the first construction
machinery company to be listed in an IPO on the
Shenzhen Stock Exchange. In 2012 it was one of
the first Chinese companies in this market to make
a major acquisition overseas when it bought
leading Poland based crawler dozer company
Dressta, while it has founded important JV
companies with Cummins and Metso (now Metso
Outotec) in 2011 and 2014, building on a strategy
that started with the founding of a JV with ZF for the
production of axles and transmissions back in 1995.
The company also showed vision when it
employed American David Beatenbough as VP of
R&D in 2006, managing those activities across five
global sites including Liuzhou where he is based,
as well as India, Poland, the US and the UK. He was
the first senior western executive in the industry to
be employed by a Chinese OEM and more
importantly is based in China. This was a shrewd
move in helping the company understand what
global equipment users expect in design, quality
and technology as well as service. Today, LiuGong
employs over 10,000 people and produces well over
32 product lines.
The Liuzhou R&D facility alone has a 100,000 m 2
footprint with a prototype centre, 12 labs and an
outdoor testing area. It has the capacity to house
up to 1,200 engineers. It includes a cutting edge
semi-anechoic noise testing chamber. This facility
has helped produce industry firsts such as the
VL80A, the industry’s first vertical lift wheel loader
with self-levelling Z-bar bucket launched in 2016
and the 4180D motor grader, which won the Red-
Dot Award in 2019. More recent advances include
the new F-series excavator lines as well as
intelligent equipment.
A timeline to global success
LiuGong’s globalisation started with the export
business back in 1993 when it was granted an
import and export licence. Over the first 10 years, it
only sold around a dozen sets of equipment
annually to foreign buyers and failed to seek out
the target clients in the global market. In 2003, the
company adopted a new strategy of going global.
An evolving domestic market
IM met with Dave Beatenbough in Liuzhou who
had some interesting comments on the Chinese
market: “There is no doubt that the domestic
market is challenging and competitive. The
excavator market was traditionally not as price
driven as wheel loaders as the market developed
differently – it started with imports of Japanese
brands into China which introduced premium
products, technology and prices. So relatively
speaking, excavators have retained price levels. In
recent years, however, this has come under
pressure as competition has increased. The
technology of Chinese made wheel loaders has
increased significantly at the same time though
prices have failed to keep pace – the relative price
of a wheel loader in China is still significantly lower
than outside China though the products are now
On the production line for LiuGong mid range
wheel loaders in Liuzhou, China
International Mining | SEPTEMBER 2020