The beginning of a fruitful partnership between Georgia and the Hunan Provence of China was celebrated in style Monday, complete with an orchestra and a red carpet ceremony to mark completion of the first phase of Sany America’s assembly plant facility in Peachtree City.
Assembly and production will gear up later this year, as Sany America plans to surpass the 200 employee mark. By the end of 2012, the company plans to have a total of 300 employees on board.
Currently the company employs 108 people, and its Peachtree City campus will become its U.S. headquarters.
The 360,000-square-foot facility — about the size of six high school football fields — will be used to assemble heavy construction equipment including crawler cranes, excavators, motor graders and concrete pump trucks. The plant will eventually assemble five different concrete manufacturing machines once fully operational.
It also will be the home of Sany’s first North American-specific product, the “RT” Global Rough Terrain Crane.
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal was on hand Monday to officially unveil a fully-assembled crane, which is the machinery that will eventually be assembled at the SANY America Peachtree City plant.
“SANY America’s decision to locate in Georgia in 2007 is a great example of the steps we take to position our state as a strategic home for international companies seeking foreign direct investment opportunities in the United States,” said Deal.
As the U.S. headquarters, the Peachtree City SANY America facility will also include research and development, sales, service, and distribution operations as well.
Dignitaries participating in Monday’s ceremony besides Gov. Deal included his counterpart from the Hunan Province, Gov. Qiang Zhou, along with Sany Group Ltd. Chairman Wengen Liang and Yanping Gao of the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Houston.
Liang closed his speech, which was spoken in Chinese and translated to English, saying that on behalf of Sany and its employees, “We wish you good health and all the very best.”
Sany chose Peachtree City in part because of its excellent labor workforce but also because of its quality of life, company officials have said. The company also received a significant tax abatement over a 10-year period because of the number of jobs that will ultimately be created under an agreement with state economic development officials.
Referencing January’s ice storm that crippled metro Atlanta roads in January, Gov. Deal noted that Sany also manufactures road scrapers.
“That’s a nice thing to know,” Deal said.
The governor added that he hoped the state would grow along with Sany in its partnership together.
Referencing that partnership, Hunan Province Gov. Zhou noted the hopes that Georgia companies will also invest in China.
“Sany is building a bridge between the Province of Hunan as well as the State of Georgia,” Zhou said.
China and Georgia have been linked together dating back to the introduction of Coca-Cola products in China, Zhou noted.
SANY Group Ltd. was founded in 1989 and has exceeded sales revenues of $8 billion with 53,000 employees in over 120 countries. The parent company is one of the world’s largest concrete machinery manufacturers and the largest concrete-pumping equipment company in China. SANY Group Ltd. ranks among the Forbes “Top Chinese Enterprises” and has 30 subsidiaries worldwide and exports to 110 countries. Besides the U.S. location in Georgia, other SANY facilities include five industrial parks in China and R&D and manufacturing/assembly locations in Germany, India and Brazil.
The company’s investment in its campus, located south of Cooper Lighting off Ga. Highway 74 South, is estimated to be about $60 million to date. Construction began in June 2010.
