ZPMC

When, in Port Strategy’s October 2007 edition, an industry consultant suggested that ZPMC’s after sales service, especially in respect of spare parts provision, was not all that it should be, the world’s leading supplier of container cranes was moved.

In fact, ZPMC marketing manager Jin Rui tells

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that not only is this not a true reflection of the company’s current position, it also masks what is often a superior service to that offered by rivals.

“In our experience, delivery time for Chinese spares parts is significantly shorter than for European spare parts, except in exceptional cases where some European manufacturers have stockpiles,” says Mr Rui. “In China, if crane operators encounter problems in sourcing European components, they will purchase replacements from ZPMC. In many cases, while the European manufacturer will agree to correct these problems, the lead time remains too long. Operators therefore understand that it makes sense to pay an extra charge, because it reduces their downtime.”

In Europe, he claims, excessive delivery times for European mechanical and electronic components have prompted many operators to switch to ZPMC spare parts, where the service is more timely. As a result, Chinese gearboxes, reels, wheels, sheaves and so on are all finding favour in Europe.

Belgium operators, adds Mr Rui, have replaced existing wheels, gearboxes and sheaves with those supplied by ZPMC, while MSC Eurogate in Germany is also using the company’s wheels and gearboxes. There are, he says, many such examples from all over the world.

“In the past, Seattle Port Authority often experienced bearing problems with its hoist gearboxes, so substituted these for ZPMC gearboxes. The HPH group is also gradually replacing European-manufactured gearboxes with the ones we make. Singapore Port Authority has also ordered ZPMC gearboxes, whereas traditionally it chose gearboxes from established players, and also now prefers our wire ropes to those of its original suppliers,” says Mr Rui.

Even though ZPMC says it is confident in being able to supply spare parts directly from China, it nevertheless maintains a large supply of these at its depot in the Netherlands. This is particularly true for gearboxes, for which spare parts can be despatched to an operator within a few hours.

But Mr Rui is less confident on the supply of European components incorporated into ZPMC equipment, claiming that companies supplying these cannot usually provide an on time service.

“ZPMC has asked these suppliers to store spare parts at its facilities to support its customers, but we have not received satisfactory responses. Consequently, ZPMC has purchased many additional European components and stores them at its own depots. We are all too aware that, while many terminal operators do select European components, they turn to ZPMC for solutions when problems occur with these,” he says.

Mr Rui also stresses that crane operators are supplied with complete technical documents whenever they buy a ZPMC crane.

“We understand that some operators would prefer every component to have a specific number so that it can be used when purchasing spare parts. However, in the ZPMC system, these numbers can be found by using the Drawing Number and the Component Number,” he says.

Significantly, he adds that ZPMC believes terminal operators would find it easier providing its engineers with a description of the problem component -along the lines of: “the coupling for XYZ [crane number] trolley”- allowing them to then identify the model of the coupling.

“Recently, ZPMC has introduced a ‘life-cycle warranty’, which guarantees the performance of major components. This measure clearly demonstrates that we do have absolute confidence in our components, which therefore must be of a high quality to allow such a guarantee to be made,” he says.

Finally, Mr Rui points out that ZPMC does not try to profit from the sale of spare parts and from offering after sales service to its customers, which it believes is a quite distinct approach to that adopted by other companies in the industry.

“By adopting this approach, we are able to ensure that our products offer really good value for money. The savings incorporated into our competitive purchase price are therefore real savings,” he concludes.