The third China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo (the "Expo") will be held in Changsha from June 29 to July 2. In recent years, economic and trade exchanges between Changsha, Hunan and the African continent have entered the fast lane. With high-performance products and quality services, Sunward is stepping up its development of the African market, continuously exporting mining equipment such as rock drilling rigs and mining excavators, as well as rotary drilling rigs, skid-steer loaders, cranes and aerial work machinery to Africa.

Recently, after about a month at sea, Sunward's new rock drilling DTH rig SWDE165B finally landed in South Africa. After adding safety configurations required by local mines, Sunward's South African subsidiary and its dealer officially delivered the equipment to the customer.

A person in charge at Sunward said that, based on feedback from previous users and on-site use, Sunward's R&D team made many improvements to the original model, making the new SWDE165B more stable in performance, lower in fuel consumption, simpler to operate and more convenient to maintain and service.

Africa is rich in mineral resources with large reserves. Sunward is an international brand supplier of complete sets of mining equipment for drilling, excavation, hauling, beneficiation and smelting, providing complete and differentiated equipment for different types of mineral resources. According to the company, Sunward was among the first batch of construction machinery manufacturers to enter Africa together with Chinese overseas engineering contracting companies. As early as 2008, it cooperated with CCECC (China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation) on engineering projects in Nigeria and set up a company there to provide equipment services and spare parts. Afterwards, Sunward equipment successively entered countries such as Algeria, Zambia, Tanzania and South Africa. In 2016 and 2017, Sunward rotary drilling rigs and excavators took part in the construction of Kenya's Mombasa-Nairobi Railway and Nairobi-Malaba Railway.

With the implementation of the national Belt and Road policy and the expansion of China's investment and construction in Africa, Sunward's business regions in Africa have extended to North Africa, East and West Africa and South Africa. Building on its accumulated strength, Sunward opened a new chapter in Africa with steady and rapid strides starting in 2019.

In 2019, Sunward officially appointed a dealer to enter the South African market, and subsequently established a South African subsidiary with complete-machine and spare-parts warehouses. At present, Sunward has dozens of units in operation at large mines in South Africa, worth over 100 million yuan, with local foreign-invested customers accounting for more than 90%.

2021 was clearly an accelerating year for Sunward's entry into the African market. In August alone, 10 transport vehicles fully loaded with rock drilling equipment and spare parts drove out of Sunward Industrial City in the Changsha Economic and Technological Development Zone, crossing the ocean to the African market. In 2021, Sunward's excavator exports to Africa grew 67% year on year.

Recently, the P6515B1-10 tower crane independently developed by Sunward Jianglu, a Sunward subsidiary, set off from the Jiuhua Economic and Technological Development Zone industrial park in Xiangtan and shipped via Tianjin Port to Sierra Leone in Africa to support local municipal engineering construction.

The equipment was purchased by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (hereinafter referred to as CCECC Group). As a large enterprise group featuring railway engineering and mainly engaged in engineering contracting, CCECC Group reached cooperation with Sunward as early as 2008. The two sides jointly participated in engineering projects in Nigeria, and CCECC also successively purchased nearly 100 million yuan of road construction equipment from Jianglu Electromechanical.

In April this year, entrusted by the provincial government, a Changsha municipal government economic and trade delegation visited Africa and held the "China (Changsha)-Nigeria Investment and Trade Promotion Conference" in Abuja, the Nigerian capital. As a representative of Changsha's construction machinery enterprises, Sunward's Nigerian subsidiary signed a three-year machinery and equipment agency agreement worth 120 million yuan with the local Chinese enterprise Joint Continent Company at the promotion conference. The two sides will carry out close cooperation in the field of medium and large excavators, providing high-quality excavator products and after-sales services to major engineering construction enterprises and mineral development customers in Nigeria.

It is understood that Sunward registered and established a wholly owned subsidiary in Nigeria at the end of 2022. At present, Sunward SWE365E large excavators are already working at construction sites in Lagos, Kano and other places in Nigeria.

As China-Africa cooperation deepens, Sunward's African "circle of friends" is also growing. From exporting more than 20 rock drilling units to South Africa in 2019 to another batch export to Namibia in 2021; from exporting brand-new equipment to exporting used rotary drilling rigs; from starting in one country to blossoming across African countries... To date, Sunward equipment has entered more than 20 African countries, with cumulative sales in Africa of more than 1,000 units (sets), deeply involved in major engineering construction projects in Africa, including Kenya's Mombasa-Nairobi Railway and Nairobi-Malaba Railway, Nigeria's Lagos light rail project and South African coal mine projects, contributing to Africa's development.

Africa is an important strategic market for Sunward. At present, Sunward has channel networks in countries such as Algeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with its sales network covering almost all of Africa. To better support its dealers, Sunward has worked with them to establish multiple spare-parts warehouses and subsidiaries in Africa.