A grand foundation-laying ceremony for Phase I of XCMG Shanghai Port-side Base Project was held at the Fengxian Campus of the Shanghai Harbor-side Logistics Park on the morning of 20 March. Hundreds of attendants and a large number of media, including senior government officials and top XCMG executives, the project’s team members and representatives of supporting firms, such as Ai Baojun, vice mayor of the People’s Government of Shanghai, Cao Xinping, party secretary of Xuzhou City, Shi Guanghui, party secretary of Fengxian District of Shanghai, Zhuang Shaoqin, governor of Fengxian District of Shanghai, Zhu Jiajun, Deputy Director of Shanghai Harbor-side Management Committee and deputy governor of New Pudong District, Qi Jun, chair of China Engineering Machinery Industry Association, Li Jian, vice mayor of People’s Government of Xuzhou City, Wang Min, chairman and party secretary of XCMG, Liu Jiaping, president of Harbor–side Group, Zhang Shouhang, XCMG Party Standing Committee member, chairman of the trade union and concurrently chairman and general manager of XCMG Machinery Company Shanghai LLD, Han Bing, XCMG Party Standing Committee member and deputy general manager, took part in the ceremony to witness this moment of milestone significance.
Wang Min, XCMG chairman, delivered a warm speech, stating, “At this beautiful moment in the early spring in Shanghai, XCMG is welcoming a historical event – the foundation laying ceremony of the First Phase of Shanghai Harbor-side Base. XCMG shall make full efforts in building it into a high-end, intelligent and modern engineering machinery research, development and manufacturing base, the largest in China away from Xuzhou. The Shanghai base construction is a mega move in XCMG’s globalization strategy for the First Phase of this project to seize the opportunity of developing domestically made excavators to take the place of foreign made ones. Efforts will be made to complete the construction entirely in the first half of next year, and bring large and medium sized excavators manufacturing/sales scale up to RMB10-billion level or more. In the Second and Third Phases, efforts will be made to speed up the bulldozer, large hoisting machine and overseas oriented main engine and key component production capacity construction. In the follow-up actions, making use of the 580-meter coastline, a totally new sector of port machinery and marine engineering facilities will be developed, to shape the harbor-side base into XCMG’s home base of globalization strategy and the strategic departure point of emerging industry development and high-end facilities manufacturing in Shanghai. Taking advantage of Shanghai’s unique geological position and talent pool, the construction of XCMG’s Shanghai R & D Center will be sped up, which will emphasize on breakthrough makings in the core technologies of new materials, new processes, parts and components, as efforts will be made to build into it an overseas-oriented secondary R & D base.
In their speeches, senior officials from China Engineering Machinery Industry Association, Fengxian District of Shanghai, Xuzhou City and Harbor-side Group delivered warm congratulations on the foundation laying ceremony and wished XCMG great successes in realizing its ambition at Fengxian District, Shanghai. Also at the ceremony, senior officials and distinguished guests took part in the ribbon cutting and groundbreaking rituals to express their best wishes.
XCMG’s Shanghai Harbor-side Base is the largest engineering machinery research, development and manufacturing facility in China away from Xuzhou. The project occupies 2330 mu (15 mu = 1 hectare) of land with a total investment of RMB10 billion or more. The construction of the project will be 3-phased, the first consisting of 830 mu of land, second 500 mu and third 1,000 mu plus the 580-meter coastline, that will feature excavator, bulldozer, large engineering machinery and overseas oriented main engines and high-end parts and components manufacturing. XCMG Shanghai Research Institute and Sales Center will also be established. In the follow-up plan, efforts will be made to develop the new strategic sectors of port machinery and marine engineering facilities, with this harbor-side base being shaped into XCMG’s home base in its globalization strategy and a strategic base of emerging industry development and high-end facilities manufacturing in Shanghai. Taking advantage of Shanghai’s unique geographical position and talent pool, the construction of XCMG’s Shanghai R & D Center will be sped up, which will emphasize on breakthrough makings in core technologies of new materials, new processes, parts and components, making it into an overseas-oriented secondary R & D base.
The First Phase of the project launched involves a total investment of RMB3 billion for seizing the opportunity of developing domestically made excavators to take the place of foreign made ones. Efforts will be made to complete the construction entirely in the first half of 2013 and push the scale of large and medium sized excavator manufacturing/sales up to the RMB10-billion mark or more, for it to join the strong network of the excavator producing bases at Xuzhou, Xinjiang and Brazil and make headways in domestic market positioning and rapid international market expansion.
The deal for XCMG’s Fengxian Harbor-side project was signed on 2 April 2011, which is one more major strategic step since the Chongqing investment project and one more practical move following the strategy of “Reaching for the national and international markets based at Xuzhou and Jiangsu”. As XCMG’s window to the overseas, the Shanghai manufacturing base will work together with the other overseas bases in supporting XCMG’s RMB300-billion strategic development goal.
Dozens of media organizations including the People’s Daily, Xinhua News Agency, China Industry News, the Liberation Daily, Dragon TV, Ta Kung Pao of Hong Kong and Xinmin Evening News were present to cover the ceremony.
Senior officials taking part in the foundation laying ceremony
An bird’s eye view of the Shanghai project’s First Phase
Shi Guanghui, Party Secretary of Fengxian District of Shanghai delivering his speech
Qi Jun, Chairman of China Engineering Machinery Association, delivering his speech
Li Jian, deputy mayor of Shanghai, delivering his speech
Wang Min, chairman and Party Secretary of XCMG, delivering his speech