The Chinese connection
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It's official: CIMC Silvergreen is planning to sell its German-built trailers, with Chinese chassis components, in the UK from next year By Brian Weathertey THROUGHOUT CHINA International Marine Containers' inexorable rise to become the world's largest trailer-maker, one question has consistently been in the
back of CMs mind: "When is CIMC coming to the UK?" Thanks to the latest statements from CIMC Silvergreen (the Chinese trailer-maker's German-based manufacturing arm) we now have the answer: "CIMC
Silvergreen is planning to sell in the UK in the future. We're looking for sales partners. UK sales are planned to
start in 2014."
So there you have it: next year the Chinese (or, to be strictly accurate, the Germans and the Chinese) are set to be coming to town.
In 2005, CIMC set itself the goal of becoming the world's number one trailer-maker by 2008— and that's exactly what it has done.
And despite all the ups and downs in the economy, it says: "In 2013 the worldwide trailer production of the CIMC Group will exceed 100,000 units." That's an awful lot of trailers (for example, Schmitz Cargobull, Europe's biggest trailer manufacturer, produced 40,616 trailers in 2012).
Yet having delivered on its promise, CIMC has played what some might see as a long game in Europe. Since 2007, CIMC has held 80% of the equity of CIMC Burg, the company it set up with Burg Industries, in which CIMC has a similar 80% stake.
The Dutch road tanker, bulk trailer maker and bodybuilder is well known for its LAG, Hobur and Burg brands, and while there was an expectation in some quarters (not least at CM) that CIMC might use Burg's production facilities to build Chinese-sourced products, its real goal was to access Burg's acknowledged European bulk-trailer engineering know-how for use in CIMC's own home market. Back with a bang
After that, things went a bit quiet. Then, in the summer of 2011, CIMC Burg announced it was setting up a new trailer assembly operation called Burg Silvergreen in Gfinzburg, Germany. Sure enough, a year later, Burg Silvergreen made its debut at the IAA Show in Hanover, announcing a product range including swap body, flat bed, curtainsider
and box-bodied trailers. Most interesting of all, however, was the news that they'd feature Chinese-sourced chassis
components. A lot has happened since CM first reported on the arrival of Burg Silvergreen. In April this year it was renamed CIMC Silvergreen, reflecting the fact that it's no longer part of CIMC Burg, but directly assigned to the CIMC Vehicle Group, with CIMC owning 100% of the renamed company. From January it will also have a
new, leaner, internal organisational structure.
A spokesman for CIMC Silvergreen explains: "One year after the launch of Burg Silvergreen [now CIMC Silvergreen] CIMC management and the management of CIMC Silvergreen have analysed the business thoroughly.
"Although there were many successes, and while the brand name is widely known, the sales and production figures are not as satisfying as we had planned for." The spokesman insists the proposed changes will "improve the business activities and strengthen CIMC Silvergreen's potential to expand Europe-wide':
The majority of CIMC Silvergreen's product range, including curtainsider, skeletals and flats, will be built at its main assembly plant under construction at Gfinzburg, with full production starting in February. Total investment at the facility amounts to around €30m.
The company reports that while 10,000 units is the maximum production capacity of the Gfinzburg plant, "this does not mean we will be able to sell or produce such a large number of vehicles by next year. In 2014 it will rather be up to 3,000 units." However, in addition to its main site, it has rented a new factory building close by, where it will also build reefers. Interestingly, all the chassis for CIMC Silvergreen trailers are being assembled by Brantner, a partner company in Austria, using a number of
components sourced from supplier factories in China. The plants in Shenzhen and Qingdao (owned by CIMC Silvergreen rather than parent company CIMC) will provide exclusively for CIMC Silvergreen what it describes as "labour-intensive components without customer relevance; such as long beams, cross members and welded assemblies, as well as reefer
components such as insulated side and front walls, roofs or rear doors".
Production at the Chinese plants is under German supervision and uses German quality measures.
Meanwhile, other customer-relevant system components and supplied parts will come from established European manufacturers. A market leader
Apart from being the market leader for agricultural and municipal tipper vehicles in both Austria and western Europe, Brantner is also said to have the world's largest chassis-coating plant featuring a process called ACC— short for autophoretic coating chemicals, in which the corrosion protection coating is applied to the trailer frame by a chemical reaction, rather than electrically.
According to CIMC Silvergreen, ACC provides complete corrosion protection, particularly in chassis cavities, and is environmentally friendly and more energy-efficient than equivalent KTL coating or galvanising. The chassis-frame assembly at Brantner features state-of-the-art welding tools, and an extremely precise pre-assembly set-up.
Welding robots also ensure a high accuracy of fit and lack of distortion of the vehicle frames, which CIMC Silvergreen says is unprecedented in series production until now. A fast container loading/unloading system has been installed at Brantner to ensure a rapid turnaround of incoming components and finished chassis.
While CIMC Silvergreen's production process looks impressive, it inevitably begs the question as to where it hopes to sell its products. Its spokesman responds: "The main focus is on the home market of Germany [still the largest market in Europe] as well as eastern Europe, including Poland and Russia.
"However, large numbers can only be sold if you focus on all major markets in Europe, including France, UK, Italy and so on," he said, adding: "CIMC Silvergreen will continue to expand its European sales network in all these markets. Our vehicles are sold in many different markets across Europe." Competitive pricing
One intriguing aspect of the company's European campaign is what effect the use of Chinese-sourced components will have on its trailer pricing, and how competitive that might be. "Since CIMC is the largest trailer and container manufacturer in the world, there's certainly a price advantage for steel and aluminium sourced in China," says the company spokesman. "Also the pre-assembling of certain chassis components,
such as the complete neck of the frame, is cheaper if made in China." However, he continues: "All customer-relevant components such as axles, brakes, air and electric systems, cargo-care components and landing legs, are sourced from the major European brands such as BPW, SAF Holland,
Wabco, Knorr, Jost and Hella. Therefore, a competitive price does not mean cheap."
CIMC Silvergreen also has to ensure its trailers meet the operational needs of UK buyers, not least when it comes to the height of a curtainsider.
With no national height limit, British trailer buyers have historically not exactly rushed to embrace a typical 4m Continental-spec curtainsider. Indeed, the standard UK spec for a curtainsider has already
moved from the previous 4.2m roof height to as much as 4.4m. Whatever the external height, the demand is for a minimum 3m height through the side.
In response to that question, the CIMC Silvergreen spokesman says: "At this time there are no plans to build any trailers higher than 4m. But we will certainly discuss this issue once we start installing a sales team in the UK."
Of course, there are no height issues with skeletals, one of the products CIMC Silvergreen does make. Likewise, its 4m high reefer would be compatible with any UKbased reefer operator running on to the Continent.
However, whatever their price tag or specification, we suspect the arrival of the first CIMC Silvergreen trailers in the UK will create interest, not only among UK trailer buyers but also domestic manufacturers too. After all those years of anticipation, could the Chinese waiting game be finally coming to an end? Roll on 2014. •