China's Zoomlion takes over German agri-tech firm Rabe

DW (English)

The Chinese machinery giant has acquired Rabe because of its innovative tilling technology. Zoomlion uses Rabe to expand its agricultural machinery division and wants to open up new sales channels in the EU.

Transcript

00:00The soil here in Lower Saxony is desperately dry, with no rain in weeks.

00:08Farmers in the region are making increasing use of cultivators to help retain moisture.

00:14They fight weeds and loosen the ground with special blades, but only at a very shallow depth.

00:21That's crucial because otherwise the seeds won't germinate.

00:26More and more farmers are turning to this method as climate change demands new approaches.

00:33The rollers press the soil down again, so the air doesn't get into the soil and dry it out.

00:40First you loosen it, and then the rollers pack it back down.

00:49It works so effectively because of the type, number and arrangement of the blades.

00:54This cultivator, which costs around 60,000 euros, is increasingly replacing the traditional plow,

01:01an invention that has defined agriculture for centuries.

01:09This cultivator from the company Raba is called Phoenix, and is a completely new design.

01:16The creative mind behind it is an engineer who is also an active farmer.

01:21It's the company's first major innovation in years.

01:25We wanted to launch with a full system, air brakes, chassis and certification to meet German machinery standards to re-enter the market.

01:37The Raba Company has seen some turbulent times.

01:44Until the 1990s, the family-run business was a leading manufacturer of tillage equipment with a workforce of around 1,000 people.

01:54But the generational transition from the founding patriarch to younger leadership wasn't successful, and the company went bankrupt several times.

02:03Today, Raba belongs to the Chinese construction machinery giant Zoom Lion.

02:07If the Chinese hadn't stepped in here, that would have been it.

02:10A young team now runs the company.

02:13The CEO brings the energy of a start-up and doesn't act like someone managing a 120-year-old business.

02:22But what's the new owner's strategy?

02:24Are they just stripping the company before shutting it down?

02:28Zoom Lion bought Raba about five years ago.

02:33At the time, some of their people took our technical expertise straight to China.

02:38You might have thought they would have shut us down after three months.

02:41But the opposite happened.

02:43Zoom Lion is now pushing Raba, helping us develop our products, expand our markets and become competitive again.

02:52They're clearly not just here to acquire the expertise and move on.

02:57You might have to buy the strategy quickly in the home, and then it's enough.

03:00Raba's unique expertise lies in decades of experience making precision-built plowshares,

03:06which are still made manually in the forge.

03:09The company owns a number of one-of-a-kind press moulds no one else has,

03:14giving them a real advantage when working in clay or in sandy or rocky soils.

03:21These German-engineered plowshares are now being sold in China too.

03:27This video shows Zoom Lion's operations.

03:32In China, it's the largest manufacturer of construction machinery and ranks fifth worldwide.

03:38The company employs around 35,000 people and says it has filled some 17,000 patents.

03:45Zoom Lion's factories are highly automated with very few workers.

03:50Raba's head of sales recently visited Zoom Lion's factories in China.

04:00Low energy costs and high automation make them a strong partner.

04:05When it comes to production technology, they're ahead of the game.

04:10We in Europe need to stop kidding ourselves.

04:13This isn't some backward knock-off quality production set-up. Not at all.

04:19While Raba works to regain its strength with Chinese support,

04:25Zoom Lion is using Raba's distribution network to enter the European market,

04:30supplying construction equipment from its base in Germany.

04:34A team of Chinese engineers is on site, adapting the machines for the European market.

04:42Without the proper certification and German registration, they can't be sold over here.

04:49One key adjustment, the cabs have to be replaced for the European market.

04:54They need to be larger, because Europeans are generally taller than Asians.

05:00The first Chinese models are now ready for sale.

05:04Justine Lin coordinates the collaboration between Chinese staff and the Raba workforce.

05:10A demanding job, especially when it comes to reconciling the different corporate cultures.

05:16The communication between Germany and China is really important.

05:23I have to explain things to the German side, and then to the Chinese side.

05:30Sometimes we speak in English, but even then the same words can mean different things.

05:35That causes misunderstandings.

05:41So I'm constantly going back and forth.

05:43That's the main part of my job.

05:52The workforce hopes it won't be affected by geopolitical tensions or global economic disruptions.

06:02And that the successful German-Chinese cooperation in rural Lower Saxony will continue to bear fruit.

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