LiuGong and ZF China have announced they will form a new joint venture to produce wheel loader axles for the Chinese market.
Named Liuzhou Axle, the plant will produce 30,000 newly-designed axles once it is running at full capacity by 2018, to be delivered to LiuGong as well as being sold on to other manufacturers.
A team of engineers from ZF and from LiuGong worked together to upgrade the design of wheel-loader axles, which saw the implementation of a modular axle concept to reduce production costs, and also allowing for the possibility to supply axles with a sophisticated wet multi-disk brake.
ZF’s CEO Dr Stefan Sommer hailed the move, pointing at the rapid development of construction machinery in China.
“More than half of the worldwide wheel loaders are produced in China,” said Sommer.
“A considerable amount of machines are also being exported abroad from there. The impressive export rate, in particular, represents a big challenge since it frequently leads to market fluctuations.
“With the new joint venture company, ZF will continue its growth in China. Therefore, we are ideally equipped for the coming challenges,” he said.
LiuGong’s chairman, Wang Xiao Hua, said the two companies were benefitting from previous co-operation. ZF China and LiuGong have been operating a joint venture company in China since 1995.
“The new venture will benefit from the many successful years of cooperation already between LiuGong and ZF and by further extending this beneficial cooperation, we will continue to set many things in motion on the fiercely-competitive construction machinery market.”
In 2014, production at the plant will reach 3,300 units of the newly designed axles. The annual volume will increase to more than 30,000 by 2018, by which time the factory will have approximately 190 employees.
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