SANY Germany is now known as SANY Europe to better reflect the scope of the company's operations.

SANY Europe, which operates in 13 European countries, currently has 17 European dealers for port equipment, excavators and crawler cranes. Paolo Dazi, general manager of distribution, tells Forkliftaction.com News: "Basically, the name change just better reflects the ongoing strategy. SANY Europe has been and still is focusing on the whole of Europe as (its) territory. The target is to cover the whole area by premium distribution and service dealers for our port equipment and earth moving machinery.

"We focus on taking on board, in every European country, dealers who have an excellent service capability and experience as well as reputation in the industry. We (have) succeeded in 13 countries so far and will keep the expansion going."

Dazi says SANY Europe, with its German headquarters, is "the only research and development, production and distribution hub (besides China) for SANY mobile port equipment globally".

"Our main focus is to establish the brand SANY within Europe; however, our customer outreach goes beyond that; especially the port industry, (which) has many global players [that] would not only supply in Europe but worldwide."

Bart Decroos, managing director of SANY Europe, adds that the name change marks the start of a new era: "(The old name) just didn't reflect who we are anymore, and definitely not who we want to be. Therefore, we've taken this action."

Since 2011, SANY Germany (now SANY Europe) has been headquartered in Bedburg, Germany, which is close to Cologne and Dusseldorf. The company's production facility, including its spare parts warehouse, spans 10,000 sqm (108,000 sqft.), while it has 7,000 sqm (75,000 sqft.) of R&D and office facilities and a 3,000 sqm (32,000 sqft.) paint shop, all situated on a 25 ha (62 ac.) site.

SANY employs about 100 people in Bedburg. It is the only SANY entity in Europe. The staff is mainly German and the management is completely European.

Dazi says there are no plans to change the location of SANY Europe's headquarters as the Bedburg location has many advantages. He says the site not only allows the products to have the 'Made in Germany' label, but has excellent infrastructure and is closely located to main transportation hubs, essential for its spare parts business.

"We are sourcing components from suppliers all over Europe and therefore have a short or easier supply chain. (Also), our facilities are completely new and to the latest standards; and we still have room for expansion in the future."

SANY Germany was founded in 2008. It is part of the Chinese SANY Group that was founded in 1989 and claims to have become one of the world's largest construction equipment manufacturers. The group's turnover for 2013 was RMB3.225 billion (USD514 million).