Bauma China 2004, Asia's largest international trade fair for construction machinery, will open next Tuesday in the Shanghai New International Expo Center.

The fair will cover an area of 100,000 square meters. Apart from 30,000 square meters of indoor space, exhibits will be displayed on 70,000 square meters of open ground.

Over 700 companies are expected to display their latest products at the fair, compared with 456 which participated in the previous Bauma China in 2002. About 230 of them will be Chinese machinery manufacturers.

Products of the Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group, the largest Chinese machinery enterprise, will occupy the largest space among all participants at the fair, said Li Suoyun, deputy-manager of the group.

"We will fill 2,164 square meters of exhibition ground with various new products we developed in recent years," he said.

Major exhibits from the Xuzhou company will include land levelers, shovel loaders, road rollers, truck cranes, high platform fire engines and pavers.

Established in 1989, the Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group is now the leading developer, manufacturer and exporter of construction machinery in China.

Its business income totaled 11.2 billion yuan (US$1.35 billion) in the first half of this year.

"This successful business has created a solid foundation for reaching our whole-year target of 20 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion) in business income in 2004," Li said.

The company's mid-term plan showed its business income is expected to reach 50 billion yuan (US$6 billion) in 2010, and over US$1 billion worth of equipment will be exported by that time.

The company's development focus is the expansion of its overseas market. The 13 joint venture enterprises established by the Xuzhou machinery manufacturer and its overseas counterparts have become its export bases.

The group's products are currently exported to over 80 countries and regions including the United States, Australia and South Korea, earning an annual average of US$40 million in foreign exchange, Li said.

Over 2,000 enterprises are engaged in construction machinery manufacturing in China, according to official statistics.

The sectors's total sales income ranked it fifth after the electronics, automobile, petrochemical and farming machinery industries in 2003, exceeding 100 billion yuan (US$12 billion) last year, a 34 per cent increase compared with 2002.

(China Daily November 13, 2004)