Located in Lin’gang New City, Southeast of Shanghai, Konecranes Port Machinery (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. provided efficient solutions and excellent service for heavy industry, logistics, shipping yard and ports as forklift manufacturing, sales and technological support of Konecranes Group in Asian Pacific area.

Currently, Konecranes’ business in China included three series: heavy-duty forklift with capacity of 10 ton—60 ton, possessing the widest range of products; container stacker for stacking empty and full containers, worked together with heavy-duty forklifts specialized for roll-on/roll-off ships to combine a comprehensive forklift fleet and reach stacker for handling empty and full containers, loading and unloading operations of trailers or barges as well as operations in steel plant, heavy-duty machinery industry and so on.

In addition, Konecranes manufactured various kinds of forklifts tailored for different requirements of customers.

Recently, Chinaforklift.com (www.chinaforklift.com, English version: www.forkliftnet.com) conducted special interview to Mr. Victor Low, Sales and Marketing Director of Konecranes.

Chinaforklift.com: Thank you for your time to accept our interview. As we all know, Konecranes is a world leading crane manufacturer. Can you briefly introduce Konecranes Port Machinery (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. for us?

Victor: We established offices in 44 countries all over the world with nearly ten thousand of staff. In 2008, our sales amounted to EUR 2,100 million Our products are mainly industrial cranes, maintenance services , heavy-duty cranes and port machinery. We have a professional after-sales service department with systematic trainings.

The first phase of workshop for port machinery factory was built up in 2006. Now the reach stackers are all assembled in Shanghai while key parts such as engines were imported from Sweden. At the end of 2006, we started business in China, establishing offices in the large port cities, firstly in Southern China: Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Shanghai, Ningbo and then in Northern China: Tianjin, Dalian, Qingdao and Beijing.

Our sales and technology staff are ready to offer service in coastal cities. After years of promotion and sales, we have several large customers in Lianyungang and Shenzhen. Our customers praised our products with higher technology and satisfactory after-sales system. In China, we have more than 200 after-sales staff in 17 cities.

In 2009, we will enlarge our investment scope to establish 2^nd production base on the basis of 1^st phase of workshops. We considered that Asian area was prospective and the 2^nd workshops were mainly aiming at Asian market to provide in-time delivery. Though our technology was from Sweden, we hope to contact closely with customers in Asia.

Chinaforklift.com: Among traditional small-tonnage forklifts, World Top 20 manufacturers have entered China in succession, thus the competition in the field of high-end small-tonnage material handling equipment becomes more and more fierce. As Sany Heavy Industry, Lonking in China launched container stackers and forklifts, domestic manufacturers have turned to large-tonnage port equipment field. How do you think about this? Did you feel the press?

Victor: It’s inevitable to have competitors on the market. Chinese brands must be more famous in China than in America and Europe. The fame of a brand needs a long time to establish. In addition, European customers may choose our brand only if they have projects in China as they trust our quality.

It’s not a short-term program to do well in the field of heavy-duty machinery. The service life of products may be five or ten years. What if the customers occurred with lots of quality problems after one year?

We have got close to our competitors including European and domestic brands. There still was large gap in between. The clearest difference lies in work duty of the machines. Our machines are designed for heavy duty, tough environment usage.

Chinaforklift.com: Domestic high-end large-tonnage material handling market was mainly occupied by Kalmar, Fantuzzi and Konecranes. Mr. Liu, what in your opinion was the largest achievement and difficulty of Konecranes to acquire larger market shares?

Victor: Port industry was not so pleased this year, which can be seen from the exhibition. However, the most difficult time was rightly the occasion to present the strength of the company. Till now, we didn’t stop production, neither in Shanghai nor in Swede.

We will try our best to persuade customers to use our products, which is a kind of fair competition. We introduce our products to the customers so that we own fixed customer cluster and it’s also a good way to promote our products.

Currently, we performed well in Southeastern Asian market with more than 80% market shares FY 08. Our product price may be listed to top three in China. As it’s not a long time for us to enter China, our team construction needs further strengthening.

The values of Konecranes focused on the safety. Our president advocated to providing a safe working environment for workers. We take the principle of customer-oriented, paying attention to the advice of customers to solve problems in time.

Konecranes has solid capital foundation. In early 2009, Konecranes acquired Jiangsu Three Horses Crane Manufacture Co., Ltd., which was the second largest electric crane manufacture in China, demonstrating our strength of developing diversified products. As for the product, if it was described as a pyramid, imported brands especially several European brands stayed on the top. Though the low-end market was vast, the benefit was too small and most of them emphasized on quantity, which could not undertake the risk.

Chinaforklift.com: Well, how about Konecranes developing and investing on new products? Compared with the same products, what are the main advantages of Konecranes products? Could you introduce to us what measures will Konecranes take to develop new products so as to improve competition force?

Victor: We introduced Electronic Machine Control (EMC) for our reach stacker. When a reach stacker was under operation, the fuel consumption could be remote controlled by installing fuel management software system, which would calculate the consumption situation and the number of container stacked.

We listed several working sheets to contrast different situation of fuel consumption. Inside the forklift we install specialized system, through which the consumption volume will show on the computer and we can conduct comparison after outputting the data. This is for bitterly guiding the drivers how to save fuel. Such kind of management is also a way of examination. For example, a team leader will be tested by the fuel consumption volume after stacking 5000 boxes, who will get appreciation if reaching the standard.

Currently we mainly implement such kind of automated management as well as guide our customers to operate the machine in this way. This management mode will be more fair as the data will never be partial to anyone but just showing out whether the driver has accorded to the standard or not. Moreover, we changed the names of drivers into numbers with certain passwords given by the administrator so as to reduce the pressure of the drivers.

In the process of sales, we try our best to show our excellent service and the quality-price-ratio. Besides professional after-sales service team, elegant design, man-machine cooperation and comfortable cab, we inquire the suggestion of the customers to provide tailored material handling solution.

Konecranes machinery applies box chassis, which is not easy to be deformed although the steel structure is much heavier. On the aspect of customers, this is safer than traditional forklift. In addition, facing with Chinese market, the tires of Konecranes products are designed wider than other brands to keep steady and balance. Though narrow tires can save spaces and costs, we prefer to choose safer mode. In our design concepts, safety is always the most important tenet to follow, for which we shall be responsible for the operator, the machine and the customers.

Chinaforklfit.com: Nowadays, many enterprises launched energy-saving forklifts. Does Konecranes have any new technology on this aspect?

Victor: We use Europe II or III engines. Some customers asked us why our products were much expensive than other brands, and we explained to them that our engines were environmental friendly and in accordance with the international standards. Our products mainly faced with Europe and America, and we persisted in achieving the latest standard. In addition, we shall consider about the thought of customers to meet the different demands of them, no matter on the domestic or international market.

Chinaforklift.com: As we all know, Konecranes Group acquired Sweden SMV Company to enter heavy-duty stacker market. For many customers, KONECRANES was a relatively new name. It’s a long time to establish a new brand. What’s your opinion on this issue?

Victor: In our group we emphasized “OneKonecranes” concept, naming Konecranes to all the products of the company including forklift and crane. Currently we own a full range of products, such as heavy-duty forklift and reach stacker, which is not limited to port but also in the industrial sector.

During 1994-1997, we sold STS and RTGs to China by using KONECRANES as the brand.

Chinaforklift.com: In order to save production cost, most of manufacturers will choose domestic part supplier. How about Konecranes? What advantages does Konecranes have in terms of after-sales service?

Victor: We have a well organized supply chain, which will purchase parts and hand over to test department. Different suppliers offer their models, and we will purchase the parts only after the test. We accord with strict process in Swede and also in Shanghai.

The company shall consider many factors rather than measuring only through price. We put safety on the first place. If the products of domestic matching manufacturers passed our safety test, we will choose them without hesitation.

However, except the key parts imported from Sweden, we mainly applied domestic products. As it’s not a long time for us to enter Chinese, we should be more cautious on choosing the correct part products. With the development in future, we will introduce more and more turn to local parts.

As for after-sales service, our primarily target is to get closer to the customers. In Yantian Port, Shenzhen, we have more than 19 after-sales service staff worked there. We setup office, workshop, tool room, part store inside the port. We recruit qualified Engineers, technicians for the customers to provide professional services for our customer. Our technological and management staff will have periodical training in Finland and Sweden while we hold forklift training in Swede. The training will keep our pace to upgrade the professional knowledge so as to implement the concept of our company. This is necessary for a company.

Chinaforklift.com: Using cycle cost to ensure the most beneficial cooperation counts a lot in Konecranes’ corporation culture. Operation concept will influence the development of an enterprise. What kind of concept will Konecranes stick to in future?

Victor: As for the end users, it’s the most important thing to reduce cost. Our unique load-sensing hydraulic system equipped on our products can adjust the power according to the load, which can better control fuel consumption and gas emission so as to meet the demand of long-time operation. Our products are featured with the reliability, high price-quality-ratio, long service life and low cost.

Our aim is to establish long-term cooperative relationship with our customers. As port machinery is relatively new series of products, we can’t lose our customer cluster. We shall firstly improve our business quality to enhance sales channel and upgrade the qualification of the sales staff to be more professional.

Since I joined Konecranes several years ago, I have seen the growth of the company from sales value of 400 Million Euro to 2, 100 Million Euro today.

Chinaforklfit.com: What measures will Konecranes take to face with the global financial crisis?

Victor: To reduce cost must be the common way. As for us, we will pay more attention on visiting the customers to upgrade the information of our company. During the special period, we shall conduct wise consumption. We spent a lot in attending TOC, which we thought was quite necessary to make advertisements and promotions. Now we shall be prepared for the good time as the demands of market will turn to be positive sooner or later.

Chinaforklift.com: What’s your opinion on Chinese port handling equipment market compared with mature market in Europe and America?

Victor: I think Chinese market is prospective. In Europe and America, many ports have no expansion space anymore and the market has been saturated. Asia as an emerging area is full of challenges too.

The manufacturing cost of port machinery in China was not as cheap as before, including the workers and raw materials.