三一重工勇闯美国市场

    2011年3月中旬，在工程设备行业这个价值数百亿美元的产业中，但凡有点名气的公司都来到了拉斯维加斯参加工程机械博览会（Conexpo/Con Agg）——这是一个大型行业博览会，为期五天，每三年举办一届。各种挖掘机、起重机和其他工程设备列于展道两侧，确实值得一看。在2,000多家参展商中，有一个展位尤为显眼：这里有一幅长100英尺的巨型海报从天棚垂下，海报上是一个五十多岁，身材魁梧的男人。他佩戴着一副有色眼镜，一顶红色安全帽，昂首站在一台大型起重机前面，目光中充满斗志。海报上的文字是：“质量改变世界”。海报上的人正是约翰•兰宁。对于普通人而言，这个名字可能并不熟悉，但在工程设备圈子里，兰宁却是偶像级人物——他是美国屈指可数的顶尖履带式起重机工程师。要谈到设计世界上最强大的起重机——能把顶盖吊到核电站厂房顶部的那一类——兰宁肯定是最优秀的人选之一。

    之所以称之为履带式起重机，是因为这些起重机有一系列履带作为支撑，提供了稳定性，能够越过崎岖不平的地形。不过，要把这些重型机械从一个工作场地移动到下一个工作场地却是一个复杂的难题。兰宁降低了这项工作的难度。他设计出了一些最早的机型，操作人员可以方便地把它们拆卸为可移动的部件，装配也很简单。24年来，他一直在马尼托瓦克公司（Manitowoc Company，MTW）从事这项工作，并帮助它成为行业中的佼佼者。这家公司是财富1000强成员（2013年排名：591），总部位于威斯康辛州。

    但工程机械展上，兰宁的海报并不在马尼托瓦克的展位上。这张海报属于兰宁的新雇主——三一重工（Sany Heavy Industry），因为这家中国大型工程设备公司在一年前把他挖了过来。虽然海报上的兰宁露齿而笑，但马尼托瓦克的表情却没有这么轻松。就在拉斯维加斯展会开幕一周之前，这家公司提起了针对兰宁的诉讼，指控他帮助三一招聘他在马尼托瓦克的前同事。马尼托瓦克的律师们在展会上向兰宁递交了法律文书。

    雇用兰宁——而且在户外广告牌大小的海报上大张旗鼓地宣传——只是这家中国公司为大举进军美国市场而使出的一系列组合拳中最新的一招。三一在国内早已主宰了市场，迅速成为了国内最大的工程设备制造商。而目前，随着中国爆炸性增长的施工活动放慢了脚步，三一开始寻找新的销售目的地，而且已经大踏步进入了美国市场。实际上，它的步伐非常激进，不信可以问问马尼托瓦克——或者问问巴拉克•奥巴马总统——三一的高管正在起诉这位总统——没错，是在起诉——理由是他阻止了三一的关联公司在俄勒冈州北部启动一个风电场项目。

    In the middle of March 2011, anyone who was anyone in the multibillion-dollar construction equipment industry gathered in Las Vegas for Conexpo/Con Agg, the industry's massive five-day trade show. Held every three years, the event is a sight to behold, with excavators, cranes, and other construction equipment lining the aisles. But amid the more than 2,000 exhibitors, one booth in particular stood out: the one with a giant, 100-foot blowup poster hanging from the ceiling featuring a burly-looking man in his mid-fifties. Wearing tinted eyeglasses and a red hard hat, he is standing, looking defiant, in front of a massive crane. The caption read QUALITY CHANGES THE WORLD. The poster boy was John Lanning, who may not be a familiar name to the average person, but in the construction world he is an icon -- one of the few top American crawler crane engineers. When it comes to designing the world's most powerful cranes -- the kind that can hoist a dome roof atop a nuclear power plant -- Lanning is one of the best.

    Crawler cranes are so named because they're supported by a set of tracks -- crawlers -- that provide stability and can maneuver through uneven or tough terrain. Moving the heavy machines themselves from one job site to the next, however, is complex. Lanning made it easier, helping to pioneer some of the earliest models that crews can assemble just as easily as they can break them down into movable parts. For 24 years he did this for Manitowoc Company (MTW), the Wisconsin-based Fortune 1000 company (2013 ranking: 591) that he helped make a leader in the category.

    But the poster of Lanning at Conexpo wasn't Manitowoc's. It belonged to his new employer, Sany Heavy Industry, the massive Chinese construction-equipment firm that had poached him a year earlier. And while Lanning might have had a doughy-faced grin in the blown-up poster, Manitowoc wasn't smiling. Less than a week before the Vegas show kicked off, the company filed a lawsuit against Lanning, accusing him of helping Sany recruit former colleagues at Manitowoc. Lawyers for Manitowoc served him papers at the show.

    Hiring Lanning -- and flaunting it with a billboard-size poster -- was just the latest salvo in one of the more aggressive pushes into the U.S. by a Chinese company. Sany has long dominated markets at home, where it has rocketed to becoming the biggest construction equipment manufacturer. Now as China's construction boom slows, it is looking for sales elsewhere, and it has moved aggressively into the U.S. market. Too aggressively, if you ask Manitowoc -- or President Barack Obama, which Sany executives are suing -- yes, that's right, suing -- for stopping an affiliate from starting a wind-farm project in northern Oregon.