—- An interview with Andrea Cavagnini, China Country Manager and Antonio Jiang, Deputy Sales Manager China, from Redaelli Tecna Ropes & Lifting (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.
At this year’s Marintec China, we have chance to make a brief interview with Andrea Cavagnini, China Country Manager and Antonio Jiang, Deputy Sales Manager China, both of them are from Redaelli Tecna Ropes & Lifting (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.. We have a nice talk and learn about some new development of Redaelli Shanghai.
Andrea Cavagnini, China Country Manager (left) and Antonio Jiang, Deputy Sales Manager China, from Redaelli Tecna Ropes & Lifting (Shanghai) Co., Ltd
LRW: When we look back the year of 2017, would you tell us how is Redaelli doing in China?
Andrea Cavagnini: Just like before, Redaelli China is mainly working in the oil and gas sector. Up to 90% of our business in China is for O&G applications. In 2016, business was standing still. In Europe and the US, business for O&G was shrinking, but in China there was still good business. But in 2017, the Chinese market also start to slow down a bit. Thus we expected the business as somehow complicated. We started to look for opportunities as we take time and resources to develop new market and new segments. The results are good as we did a lot of new applications and projects for new business sectors as in mining, industrial, crane and cableway. So let’s put it in this way, 2017 is difficult for the O&G sector. At the same time, at Redaelli, we look for opportunities in new markets and new segments.
LRW: How about the marine industry?
Andrea Cavagnini: Marine industry is better when comparing with the O&G sector. In China, still, it’s shrinking. But our main customers have already committed for the production, we can supply to meet their target of production. We are looking for a lot of projects for 2018, we are confident that next year it must be much better for offshore and mining.
Antonio Jiang: I agree with Andrea that 2018 would be a better year. The year 2017 has been a bad year for many of our customers and lifting & rigging companies. But we see signs of recovering. As the Chinese Government continues to work on oil explorations in South China Sea, such as the CNOOC’s new FPSO project in the Liuhua Oilfield. These projects attract many foreign companies and technical teams to provide supporting services and products. These would certainly bring in energy for the growth of O&G sector in China, and also promote China’s expertise in O&G exploration. We were new to the Chinese O&G sector a few years ago, Redaelli represents a centre of competence in the most high-tech products and projects.
LRW: Is this year’s Marintec China good?
Andrea Cavagnini: This tradeshow Marintec China is promising. It’s the second day of this show. But we have met a lot of visitors and our top customers. We are quite satisfied about the results so far. Through our discussions, a lot of people are looking to see a brighter future than 2017.
Antonio Jiang: Around 70%-80% of the visitors are our customers or from lifting & rigging companies, there are very positive outcomes. As Redaelli’s branch company in China, we need to observe this market closely. The popularity and feedbacks we received tell us that the offshore market has come to growth in China, and there are many projects are going to happen in this region. China is becoming a hub for services and production for the marine and O&G industries. Even though many projects are taking place outside China, many Chinese companies are involved and these bring in good opportunities for us.
LRW: Do you think the Chinese buyers understand the safety requirements for lifting?
Andrea Cavagnini: Absolutely. Redaelli is a highly reputable foreign brand in China. Our Chinese customers do care about the safety, many of them get product knowledge and application advice from our training programs and use in their daily lifting applications and it becomes their routines.
Although the Chinese market is not so big at the moment, it is quite competitive. Chinese customers are quite price sensitive, price is one of the key reason for their choices. Still, when taking into account the quality and price of Redaelli, we are super competitive.
LRW: We know that Redaelli wire ropes are made in Italy. Is there any technical service or maintenance service for Chinese customers?
Andrea Cavagnini: We have a branch in China so we can provide after sales service and technical services locally. We have cooperation with local companies in China so that we can provide more complete services for our customers. Such as spooling, and testing services for the ropes.
Antonio Jiang: We often send our technical teams to our customer‘s sites when requested or when the project requires so. For the installation of wire rope, our technical team help to ensure the procedures are correct and will issue a report accordingly. Sometimes we send people from Italy to provide technical support, and our technical team in China are experienced to provide general supports and these have been our daily work.
Our after-sales services include providing testing reports, used wire rope can go through our testing program to figure out whether it can be used or need to get replaced. With our long lasting expertise, knowledge and qualification we provide professional advice for the proper installation of wire rope with the benefits of enhanced rope life and better protection for customers’ equipment.
LRW: We know that Redaelli is thinking highly of the Chinese market. So do you have any plan for the near future?
Andrea Cavagnini: We target to improve our market presence in China. The merger of Teufelberger and Redaelli will strengthen our position thanks to a wide range of our products portfolio perfectly complementary each other, which will allow us to have a bigger platform to work in China.
The merger of the two companies has provided us with a unique expertise concerning a wide range of technical wire rope solutions. We are now among the world’s largest manufacturers of high-performance steel wire ropes. Also, our company in China would benefit too because we are better positioned in offering quality products and services, while shortening delivery time. From every point of view we are going to improve our competitiveness for the Chinese market.
LRW: How can Chinese customers understand the postioning of products from Redaelli and Teufelberger? In some segment, the two brands are competitive. And they are both wire rope manufacturers.
Andrea Cavagnini: Now we became part of the same group, so we are in one big family. Following the integration completed in the past few months we will now be present on the market with the commercial brand “Teufelberger-Redaelli”.
The newly created brand “Teufelberger-Redealli” is following the positive trend of the integration. So once we combine the two companies, we are strong in every segment. What we are doing now is to take the best of Redaelli and Teufelberger and bring the best products to the market.
We know that as we became a group our customers will greatly benefit by that. We will now be able to offer customers an extended product portfolio that can satisfy an unprecedented wide range of applications for offshore and onshore oil & gas activities, for passenger and material transport, mining, industrial lifting in construction and harbors, as well as for development and production of innovative systems for lifting.
This is a part of Redaelli and Teufelberger sales team
