XCMG has already started discussions with four countries.

Chinese State-owned XCMG Construction Machinery Group Incorporated, the leader in the sector in the country, is considering setting up a production plant in Africa. Speaking to 27 African journalists on exchange programme during a visit to the Xuzhou-based company in Jiangsu Province on March 21, 2017, XCMG President and General Manager, Dr Hanson Liu, said discussions have started with Nigeria, Ghana, Algeria and Egypt. He however insisted that certain conditions must be met before his company can take a final decision.

These include attractive tax policy, currency convertibility and stability, ease of foreign exchange transfer, affordable labour and availability of skilled manpower. Founded in 1943, XCMG is today the fifth manufacturer of construction machines in the world. Last year, it made a turnover of 15.5 Billion US Dollars (about 9,402 Billion FCFA). It produces a variety of equipment, some of them the largest in the world. These include hoisting, earth-moving, road construction and maintenance machinery; sanitary engineering equipment and concrete machinery, special vehicles, piling machinery and railway equipment.

The company’s products are available in 173 nations across the world. Last year, XCMG supplied 1,250 units of crawler cranes to Dangote Nigeria. It is also supplying machinery for the ongoing construction of Dangote’s oil refinery – the largest in Africa and amongst the biggest in the world. In 2016, the company sold 5,000 units of construction machinery to Africa. It employs 30,000 people, including dealers in Africa and 25 full-time XCMG staff serving with Dangote in Nigeria.

Dr Liu attributes his company’s success to the reliability, high quality and dependable technology it uses and decades of working with Western companies. Moreover, its equipment is cost-effective. Line managers are expected to ensure that their products are amongst the three most sold in China, else they are fired immediately, Dr Hanson Liu pointed out.