China's biggest machinery maker to see overseas sales up 25% in 2009

BEIJING, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group (XCMG), China's biggest construction machinery maker, expects its overseas sales to grow 25 percent next year to 1 billion U.S. dollars despite the global financial crisis, China Daily reports here on Thursday.

The southern Jiangsu-based group estimates a 800 million U.S. dollar overseas sales this year, and hopes to get 30 to 40 percent of its revenue from foreign markets over the next few years.

"We are also considering establishing plants in Poland and Iran," said company chairman Wang Min.

According to Wang, the on-going global financial turbulence presents an opportunity for the company to buy assets in Europe and the United States. "We are interested in buying distribution companies but not manufacturing facilities," said Wang.

XCMG's overseas revenues come mainly from the Middle East, Central Asia and Eastern Europe, but South American markets such as Argentina and Brazil are emerging.

Company statistics showed the total revenue would top 40 billion yuan (5.86 billion U.S. dollars) this year, up 23 percent from last year's 30.8 billion yuan, and will expand to 50 billion yuan in 2009 thanks to a strong infrastructure market boosted by governmental projects planned for economic growth.

As one of the Chinese leading machinery makers to compete in the international market, XCMG has not made any major overseas acquisition so far.