Zoomlion gets a French Connection!

Our good friend and the influential driving force behind the Technique TP forum and social media platforms, Hervé Prenat-Exca was invited to China to see the facilities of Zoomlion, the latest Chinese brand to have their eyes set on the European market.

Zoomlion had invited a wide range of guests to this event, from established and potential dealerships, including Portugese, Hungarian, Scandinavians and a few French customers, apparently Herve was the only journalist invited which must have been quite a privilege.

The assembled entourage spent 5 days in China, during which time they visited 3 factories, including excavator, concrete pump and access equipment plants. Hervé explained that these stat-of-the-art factories are all less than 10 years old, and each one covers more than 20 hectares, which is super impressive. In addition, each factory has a show piece presentation area where you can see and try out the machines.

This was also a great opportunity to preview some of the new products that the company will be displaying at next years Bauma Trade Fair in Munich, and for dealers to sign distribution contracts.

The statistics for these factories are mind blowing, for example, the concrete pump facility rolls out a new pump every 27 minutes, while the access equipment facility which houses 3 production lines, churns out a machine every 4 minutes!

The earthmoving equipment facility which includes skid steers on wheels and tracks, mini excavators from 1.5 to 9-tonnes, loaders, dumptrucks and large excavators from 70 – 400-tonnes churns out a machine every 20 minutes.

Hervé got to try out a vast range of machines which will be available for import into France, including wheeled and tracked skid steers, mini excavators, and mid-range excavators from 22-52-tonnes.

Hervé was also asked to spend some time in a protype 150-tonne excavator and to offer his valuable feedback on the product, apparently, he spent an hour on the machine and had a lot of fun with it!

Summarizing Hervé said, “On a global scale the machines are of good quality, the cabins on the mini excavators for instance are big and spacious inside as we like in Europe, the arms of the skid steers are low to improve the visibility and the excavators have good performing hydraulics in line with others in the market, fast responsive and smooth.

Of course, the quality level inside of the cabins will have to be improved along with some other details, but overall, the material is largely at the level of its Chinese competitors”.

The Digger Man Blog would like to thank Hervé for the information and images used in this post, hopefully we will catch up in Bauma once again!

Checkout this video from a previous French customers visit to Zoomlion in China.