Jian Feng Sling Co., Ltd. started up as a small workshop 30 years ago. The company develops steadily. Nowadays, “JIAN FENG” is a well-known brand in China. Jian Feng manufactures lifting and rigging products and the products have been exported to Europe, Australia, the Americas, Japan, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Jian Feng products are being used in many lifting and rigging projects all over the world.
In this interview, Cheng Gu, Jian Feng’s manufacturing director, and Song Zhuan-Zheng, Jian Feng’s Offshore General Manager, talk about the recent development at Jian Feng.
Cheng Gu, Head of Manufacturing from Jian Feng Sling
LRW: What are the advantages of Jian Feng’s lifting and rigging products?
Cheng Gu: First, Jian Feng has been in the industry since 1982, the company has gone through an era while the industry generally took shape in China.
Jian Feng’s long-term focus on R&D has made us one of the top experts in China for lifting and rigging products. Currently, Jian Feng holds the secretary position for the Committee for Lifting and Rigging Product Standardization in China. The Committee is formed under the China Metallurgical Standardization Institute, a Chinese government organization.
As the secretary of the Standardization Committee, Jian Feng is responsible for organizing meetings and discussions for committee members from the industry in a way to establish the official Chinese standards for lifting and rigging products. Jian Feng actively takes parts in the drafting, revising and finalizing of these standards.
Jian Feng wire rope sling products are generally made following European production methods. For example, Jian Feng uses press machines that are solely imported from Europe. We are equipped with 3000-ton press machines imported from the UK, 2000-ton press machines imported from Sweden. These press machines are designed solely for the purpose of making wire rope slings in a systematic way.
Jian Feng uses the best materials in making our slings. As an example, we use ferrules imported from Europe. These ferrules are seamless and they provide added safety when compared to ferrules with seams that are commonly used in China.
Second, Jian Feng is highly committed in testing.
Lifting slings are used in lifting heavy objects and any failure of the slings may lead to big hazard. The manufacturer of slings and lifting components should take the responsibility to ensure the quality and safety of the lifting products.
Jian Feng Testing Center is accredited by the China National Accreditation Service (CNAS) and is recognized by the ILAC-MRA. Jian Feng Testing Center is equipped with 1000-ton test bed, the largest test bed in South China. We are equipped with a wide range of test equipment, which includes 100-ton and 80-ton test beds, fall arrest testing systems for testing safety harnesses. Recently, we introduced a 600-ton fatigue-testing machine for wire ropes.
Jian Feng aims to have every part of the manufacturing processes covered by testing. This is enabled by our well-equipped testing center and the competence of our test engineers.
Third, Jian Feng put emphasis on quality management, environmental protection, and the health and safety of our employees.
Jian Feng obtained ISO9000, ISO14000 and OHSAS18000 accreditations long time ago. Most of our products are certified with foreign standards such as GS and CE. Jian Feng’s products have been exported to Europe, the Americas, Africa, Australia, and Southeast Asia.
Fourth, Jian Feng’s synthetic product manufacturing has been growing fast. The annual production has reached 4000 tons. Many of our manufacturing equipment are sourced from Europe and Taiwan.
Jian Feng has recently formed a partnership with DSM Dyneema of the Nertherlands. Jian Feng has become DSM Dyneema’s only official licensed partner to produce synthetic slings made with Dyneema® in China. Jian Feng has advantage in producing quality synthetic lifting products in the industry.
LRW: Jian Feng lifting and rigging prodcts have been exported to all over the world. How are the overseas markets developing?
Cheng Gu: The demands for lifting and rigging products are rising in many developing countries, since there are many new development projects going on. In most developed countries, the demands are stable. We can see rising demands from Russia, Brazil, India and China. In terms of industries, offshore, marine engineering and mining industries are big users of our products.
LRW: Do the users from different countries have high safety concerns for the products?
Cheng Gu: At Jian Feng, we put safety first. And in many developed countries in Europe and North America, safety is also highly emphasized. In developing countries like in part of Asia, the users may not put quality and safety as their first priority, but the scene is changing fast as the countries develop.
LRW: Jian Feng has been established well in the local Chinese market and the overseas market. What are your long term business partners?
Cheng Gu: In China, Jian Feng’s partners come from a few major industries:
1. Shipbuilding and shipyards
Our main business partner is China State Shipbuilding Corporation and its group of shipbuilding companies. For example, Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI), GWS, Cosco Shipyard, Longxue Shipbuilding are our customers in South China. We have clients like CIMC Raffles, Dalian Shipbuilding, Qingdao Wuchuan in Northern China.
2.Offshore and marine engineering
CNOOC is one of our major partners in these fields. We supply products to offshore installation, supervision & technology, and oilfield service companies under CNOOC. Jian Feng also supplies products to overseas offshore companies such as Husky Oil, Chevon and Samsung Heavy Industries.
We also work with Guangzhou Salvage Bureau and Qingdao Salvage Bureau.
We work closely with our partners to ensure their large lifting projects go on smoothly as planned.
3. Ports
Since Jian Feng is based in Guangzhou, we have a long history serving the ports in the Zhujiang Delta Region and Coastal areas in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces. Our customers include ports in Guangzhou, Yantian, Shekou, Zhanjiang and Fangcheng.
Jian Feng also supplies to ports in other parts of China, which include ports in Dalian, Tianjin, Ningbo and Shanghai.
4. Heavy Industries
Jian Feng’s partners in this area include Zoomlion, Zhujiang Steel, Guangzhou Honda and Guangzhou Sinopec.
Jian Feng also supplies products for construction projects. Our products are used in the construction of the new Guangzhou Tower and nuclear power plants.
We work with overseas partners over the years in a way to introduce their products in China. Since there are shortcomings in the domestically produced lifting chain and products in terms of raw material quality and manufacturing processes, Jian Feng brings in G80 and G100 lifting chain products by WEISSENFELS from Italy and GUNNEBO from Sweden. The top notch quality of these products could meet the demands in the mid to high end market.
In the production of ferrule-secured wire rope slings, we partner with TALURIT from Sweden, bringing in TALURIT’s machines, ferrules and their advanced ferrule securing methods.
For wire ropes, we constantly work with BRIDON from the UK, SHINKO from Japan, and KISWIRE from Korea.
For synthetic lifting, we partner with DSM Dyneema from the Netherlands. Together we introduce synthetic slings made with Dyneema®.
LRW: bauma China is a popular trade fair for construction machinery. What is Jian Feng’s expectation participating in this trade fair?
Cheng Gu: bauma China is surely a big event for the construction machinery industry in China. Jian Feng and many of our business partners such as SANY, ZOOMLION are exhibiting in this fair. Jian Feng will showcase products for use in cranes and ports. Highlight products are our new crane wire ropes and lifting accessories for crane use. We are also showcasing our chain slings, synthetic slings and tie-down products.
We expect meeting many of our old customers there. And we value these meeting as a way to discuss and further any cooperation with our customers. Meanwhile we look forward to getting new business contacts in the fair.
LRW: Lifting and related industries are developing fast in China. As a company actively involved in developing new products, what is Jian Feng’s plan?
Cheng Gu: Since Jian Feng is quite a specialized company, we focus on lifting and rigging products and we follow closely the development of this sector. Lifting, rigging and crane industries in China are constantly developing and the market is changing fast. We look for opportunities in this fast changing market.
Let me discuss what we are working on at Jian Feng.
First, we are developing products to replace products that are currently imported into China.
Many domestically produced products in China could not meet the market demand for various reasons. And users have to rely on imported products.
Jian Feng has been developing products in response to the situation. One example is our new crane wire rope socket. We used to import the wire rope, socketing compounds and sockets from Germany. For now, we have developed our own DL08PAK series of wire ropes, and we have developed new ways and new materials for connecting the wire ropes to the sockets. Our new crane wire rope socket is characterized by small size while maintaining high tensile strength similar to those of the imported products. We supply our new crane wire rope sockets and crane accessories to ZOOMLION.
Another example is wide-bodied shackles for offshore usage. In the past, offshore engineering companies in China use only imported shackles from Crosby, Greenpin, or GN. Now, Jian Feng developed our own wide-bodied shackles for offshore usage. Jian Feng’s shackles are characterized by the same high quality of imported shackles and we offer excellent value.
Second, we develop products for highly specific usage. One good example is DNV 2.7-1 offshore container lifting set. We are the first company in mainland China to obtain Type Approval from DNV to produce this product. And the product has been exported to countries in five continents.
Third, we are developing fall arrest safety harnesses. These products are frequently used in wind power installation, oil and gas, construction, and transportation industries. Jian Feng has obtained manufacturing license from national authority and we have CE certification for these products.
“Our Service, Your Safety” is Jian Feng’s core value. We aim to provide quality products and service to old and new customers alike.
Through R&D and innovation, Jian Feng is going to bring to the market new products that are as good as imported ones. We follow closely with market trends and we are able to provide products to meet customers’ specific lifting and rigging needs. Jian Feng continues to be a dedicated lifting and rigging company that goes beyond our home market of China. We aim to become a worldwide partner, while we continue to supply quality products and services that our customers used to expect.
This article is published on LRW Magazine vol10, 2012.
