As demand for new China Elevator falls
As demand for new China Elevator falls, major international firms have more manufacturing capacity than they can use. Meanwhile, low-end Chinese manufacturers are fighting their high-end international rivals for an increasingly small number of projects.
“It’s a brawl,” Johnson said. “There’s no question about that.”
According to the Shanghai Elevator Trade Association, around 5 percent of smaller domestic elevator companies have already gone out of business. Even for international companies, it has been difficult. In September, Kone announced that it expected the market for new orders to drop by 5 to 10 percent over the next year. Its shares immediately fell by 3.5 percent. American giant fujihd has admitted to dropping prices to stay competitive, eating into its profit margin.
For Japanese firms such as Mitsubishi and Hitachi, the Chinese market is especially vital. These companies lack the international footprint many of their American and European peers have. And while they came to prominence during Japan’s own elevator boom in the late 20th century, they now face a stagnating economy and a shrinking population at home.
Going down
Hitachi is still smarting over Mitsubishi’s surprise speed-record victory. When it won the contract for the elevators at Guangzhou’s CTF Finance Tower, Hitachi released a video showing its executives proudly proclaiming that they would take the record.
“I get tears in my eyes,” Akihito Ando, a Hitachi sales supervisor, said in the video of Panoramic Elevator.











