A bomb shell was literally dropped on Friday, Sept 9 during the Madang Investment Summit when Powerplus, a global manufacturer of construction equipment announced that it would build one of its assembly lines (factory) in Madang.
The announcement by Powerplus General Manager and Director, Gerard Lau, was a huge shock to the summit organizers as well as the Madang business community and the provincial government leaders.
Lau had earlier during his Company’s presentation at the summit clarified that Powerplus through a series of transformations, from a construction equipment and spare parts supplier established since 1973 had evolved to be a global manufacturer of construction equipment in 2001.
Following his announcement, Lau went on to say that the company’s outlook for the Pacific region was to establish Powerplus Pacific Limited in Madang.
He said the assembly based in Madang has already had land area identified along the north coast road measuring 10,000 to 50,000 square metres and will cater for sales and marketing.
The area will also cater for technical development and training centre and parts and services.
Lau did not elaborate on the cost of setting up the plant and when work would commence however, he said the factory would employ up to 500 people during full scale operation.
The best-selling products for the factory in Madang would be for wheel loader, Excavator, Bull dozer, agricultural tractor, motor grader, backhoe, truck, forklift, crane (Crawler/truck/tower), plant (Concrete/Asphalt/Stone)
He said from the Madang factory the company would looking to exports to emerging markets in the Pacific covering Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand , East Timor Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Tonga.
He said Powerplus Group Inc. was incorporated in the United States 2001.
Its market game changer and brand influence was through its supply of spare parts to the US army for its mission in the Gulf War and in Afganistan.
“Powerplus offers an extensive and comprehensive range of construction equipment – an integrated solution to serve various-r construction needs,” Lau said.
The company’s international headquarter is Located in Powerplus Building – Singapore, where it houses: global Product Distribution; global Supply Chain, showroom, training Facility, eengineering Team and Spare Parts Depot.
Powerplus harness the best of American, European and Japanese technology and is Positioned as a middle to high-end brand manufacturer.
Currently, Powerplus Group is represented in more than 100 countries, and is a brand that has won world-wide recognition.
Its global presence of distributors and dealers spread across 100 countries across six continents.
Lau said Powerplus strives to be the best alternative to market leaders and aspires to be household brand in the construction equipment and road-making machinery industry.