A 150-year-old Swedish tool and machinery manufacturer shows solutions to survive the international economic turmoil and grasp new opportunities in emerging markets like China.

Ten years ago when the financial crisis hit Asia, Sandvik (SAND.ST), a world leading manufacturer in sales of tooling and hardrock mining equipment, fought the difficulties in manufacturing and sale by training surplus workers instead of laying them off. Retainment of highly-qualified human resources helped the company rapidly expand its market shares in versatile product lines shortly after the crisis was over.

Lars Pettersson, president and CEO of Sandvik, said to Xinhua Thursday, "The current international financial crisis will affect all, including China, but we still have confidence on the Chinese market where we expanded our business so fast."

"We recruit the most talented people in China, bring our newest technologies to China, and try to keep the leading position in such a huge market," Petterson said.

Sandvik, with 86 billion Swedish crowns (US$11 billion) in revenues and profit of about 13 billion crowns in 2007, announced two months ago its 2008 third quarter pretax profit of 3.04 billion Swedish crowns, down from 3.1 billion crowns a year ago.

The international financial turmoil affected the business environment and thus resulted in weaker demand, the Nordic country's top engineering company is, nevertheless, one example that makes quiet preparation for the next round of economic boom after the temporary sluggishness. More than one month ago, the company announced to invest in one of the world's largest mining equipment assembly center in Shanghai.

Svante Lindholm, president of Sandvik China, said, "Economic downtown throughout the world would not change the general momentum of the fast economic growth in China in the long run."

Similar to Sandvik, a Siemens software company from Germany does not halt its pace in recruiting talents in big Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai. The company said it would have better chance to attract excellent brains with cost-efficient packages.

In the full process of innovation and production, Sandvik tries to sharpen its edges for competition. The company encourages new ideas from the very front of production lines. Two workers, who initiated an efficient cutting method that saved their factory much time and cost, were rewarded by the management 55,000 euros each.

To expand business, the Swedish company not only sells products to customers, but also closely works with them to exert better use of Sandvik tools and machinery.

Patrick Chen, senior manager for marketing at Sandvik Coromant Greater China Region, said, "We do not stop with simply selling customers products, but try hard to understand their unique demand in production and help them find added values in manufacturing."

The Shanghai-based Sandvik Coromant Greater China Region is actually a unique training center for its customers. Chen said he just trained a group of factory managers from the Republic of Korea (ROK) who were trying to develop more efficient solutions with Coromant tools.

Chen also led his own marketing teams to visit manufacturers in southeast China, the country's premier economic engine that was also hit by the global recession, observe their production and advise on how to improve their efficiency.

Such measures have made Sandvik China grow rapidly in China. Sandvik China, incorporated in 1985, now has about 1,400 employees, 25 representative offices and seven manufacturing bases. With an average annual growth rate of about 30 percent in the past seven years, Sandvik earned 2007 sales revenues of 3.8 billion yuan (US$556 million) in China, a 20 percent year-on-year growth.

Michael Barbalas, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, said, "It is important to remember that China's economy continues growing, although at a slower pace than in the past, and that growth translates into opportunity for businesses."

The 2008 business climate survey conducted by the chamber in April showed, 89 percent of respondents had an optimistic outlook for the next five years of doing business in China and 83 percent of polled companies planned to expand business capacity.

(Xinhua News Agency January 1, 2009)