From 'National Heavyweight' to 'AI Manufacturing': Sany Group's 40-Year Que
August 11,2026
Recently, the "Economic Reference Daily" published an in-depth report titled "From 'National Heavy Machinery' to 'AI Manufacturing': Sany Group's 40-Year Quest for 'Questions of the Times'", reviewing the 40-year development journey of Sany Group and praising the company's high-quality development practices.
Original Report Text
At forty, Sany still stands at the forefront.
As a leader in construction machinery and equipment manufacturing, Sany Group was founded 40 years ago in a small town in Hunan and has since grown into a global enterprise deeply involved in international markets, a technology company actively embracing the era of artificial intelligence.
The timeline of Sany's 40 years is like a brief history of "Made in China" since the reform and opening up. This company is like a small boat that has been carried from a stream into the vast ocean, always seeking answers to the questions of the times through its own practices, regardless of the stormy waves or calm seas.
Sany's new energy heavy trucks are ready to depart at Guangzhou Port. Photo from materials
Can we create national heavy machinery?
The story of Sany began in 1986 in a remote mountain village in Lianyuan, Hunan. Four like-minded young people gave up their "iron rice bowls" and started a welding materials factory with 60,000 yuan collected from various sources, which was later named "Sany". At the beginning of their venture, they set a grand ambition to "strive for the revitalization of the national industry".
However, in the 1990s, domestically produced construction machinery had almost no presence in the market. 90% of long-boom pump trucks and more than 95% of excavators were "foreign brands", and the notion that "Chinese people cannot make good excavators" was prevalent.
The core components were even facing a "bottleneck". At that time, the number of excavators produced in the Chinese market was determined by two Japanese and Korean oil cylinder companies. High-strength steel required for concrete pump truck booms could only be purchased from foreign companies, and high-end core components such as hydraulics, engines, etc., were dependent on foreign sources.
"Can we create our own national heavy machinery?" This was the first question of the times that Sany had to face. Sany's answer was that only by "breaking fear and independent innovation" could a way out be found.
To break through the bottleneck of high-strength steel, Sany's R&D team worked diligently from scratch on steel formulation, processing technology, and production equipment, conducting tens of thousands of experiments over two years, and finally succeeded in developing it. Sany has established more than 10 component companies, successfully developing core components such as engines, controllers, oil cylinders, pumps, and motor valves through independent and collaborative innovation, and fully applying them to achieve "independent control" of the entire industry chain.
From "can't make it" to "make it well", Sany has run out the "Chinese speed". In just 13 years, Sany became the world's largest concrete machinery manufacturer, known as the "world pump king"; in just 6 years, Sany's excavator market share in China jumped from a few percent to the industry leader. A series of "world's first" products such as the world's largest 4500-ton crawler crane and the world's longest steel boom pump truck have emerged, and a batch of equipment has served major national infrastructure, deeply embedding the image of "national heavy machinery".
Time came to May 2021, at the Sany Kunshan Industrial Park, the "Chinese Power, World Champion" Sany excavator global sales topping celebration evening was held. The previous year, Sany sold 98,705 excavators, accounting for 15% of the global excavator market share, marking the first time a Chinese excavator company won the "global sales championship".
How to take the path of globalization?
Like many Chinese companies after the reform and opening up, Sany participated in the process of industrialization and urbanization in China and quickly caught up with the wave of globalization.
In 2001, China joined the World Trade Organization, marking the beginning of nearly one-fifth of the world's population deeply participating in international division of labor. Although Sany was still a "small boat" at the time, it still res
Source : www.51cm.org
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