Global exhibitions build overseas competitive advantage

 

　　Internationalization has always been one of the core strategies of Shandong Lingong's development. In 2013, Shandong Lingong took participation in international exhibitions as an opportunity to continue building its brand image and expanding brand awareness in mature markets. At the Russian CTT exhibition, the Munich Bauma exhibition, the German Bauma exhibition, the South African Bauma exhibition, and the Indonesian exhibition, with BRICS and Middle Eastern countries and other potential markets as the axis, and with channel strength, service excellence, and brand building as the main lines, Shandong Lingong has been active on the international stage and has created one miracle after another. “Lingong loaders have ranked first among peers in exports for two consecutive years, and it took us only three years to achieve this.” Yu Mengsheng said that since 2009 Lingong has focused on laying out its overseas market and has established a clear overseas development plan. In Yu Mengsheng's view, the first step in expanding overseas markets is channel construction, especially aftermarket construction. To this end, Lingong has invested a large amount of manpower, financial resources, and material resources to strengthen channel and service construction.

 

　　Yu Mengsheng said that in recent years Russia has had strong demand for construction machinery. In 2012 we sold 1,700 loaders in the Russian market, with a market share of 29%. “By launching new excavator and backhoe loader product series, plus improved wheel loader products, we will be able to maintain our leading position in the Russian market.” Due to differences among overseas regional markets, ensuring service quality is a difficult hurdle for enterprises to overcome. “Lingong regards service as its top priority. In overseas markets, how many products are sold in the early stage is not important, because even with high-quality products, some enterprises often lose customers due to inadequate overseas service, so the top priority is that service must keep up and meet the service requirements of local customers.” To address the issue of after-sales repair services for overseas products, Lingong has established strong parts warehouses in several core markets around the world and implements globally unified service training standards, promptly and effectively resolving users' concerns; in addition, in response to differences in user engineering construction in various regions, Lingong has specially developed products suitable for local markets to meet their differentiated needs. Different countries have different service requirements, but no matter how great the pressure and challenges, Lingong's philosophy of “service first” has never changed, and it is always leveraging service to fully enhance customer satisfaction. Today, Shandong Lingong's products have been sold to more than 60 countries and regions around the world, becoming the preferred Chinese construction machinery brand for overseas users.

 

　　“Overseas markets have great potential. Lingong has formulated a new three-year overseas strategy. By 2016, overseas market sales must reach 5 billion yuan.” said Yu Mengsheng, Executive President of Shandong Lingong. “This year Lingong loader exports account for about 25% of the company's overall sales.”

 

　　Localized production boosts international development

 

　　In August 2013, when many enterprises were reducing production capacity to resist weak market demand, Shandong Lingong's Brazil excavator plant was officially completed and put into operation, taking an important step in its overseas strategy. Because Brazil has a huge infrastructure market, it has always been a battleground for domestic construction machinery enterprises expanding overseas. Since entering the Brazilian market, Shandong Lingong has always maintained a leading position. With the arrival of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, as well as the implementation of the country's economic stimulus plan, Brazil's construction machinery industry will usher in tremendous development in the future. The completion and operation of Shandong Lingong's Brazil plant has well seized this historic opportunity. While serving the Brazilian market, it also radiates to the entire Latin American region, becoming an important fulcrum of Lingong's overseas market and laying a solid foundation for Lingong's expansion in the global market. “Next, Lingong will further accelerate the pace of internationalization. On the one hand, it will continue to consolidate emerging markets; on the other hand, it will begin to enter the developed markets of Europe and the United States and launch more construction machinery products that comply with EU standards.” said Wang Zhizhong, Chairman of Shandong Lingong.