Heavy Equipment

Chinese Firm LiuGong Opens East Africa Hub in Kenya

The Kenya assembly facility will serve as LiuGong’s East Africa hub.

Updated on

February 21, 2025

Chinese construction equipment maker LiuGong Machinery has set up an assembly base in Kenya to serve as the hub for its East African operations.

Located in Syokimau, Machakos County, the facility will be the centre of LiuGong Machinery East Africa Limited, a subsidiary of the LiuGong Group, headquartered in China.

The move comes as East Africa experiences explosive growth in infrastructure development. The region, with a combined GDP of $295 billion, is experiencing growing demand for construction equipment driven by megaprojects in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Kenya, nonetheless, is undertaking gargantuan projects such as the Sh325 billion High Grand Falls dam, along with 99 other mega dams and 1,000 small dams under planning in the coming five years, to stem water shortage while raising food security and hydropower generation.

At least Sh995 billion will be spent on the projects to achieve full coverage of the National Water and Sanitation Investment and Financing Plan framework by 2030.

At the official opening ceremony, LiuGong Group CEO Guangan Zeng emphasised the new facility’s importance in business and knowledge transfer. He announced a collaboration with a Kenyan university to train local engineers, empowering them with mechanical engineering skills.

“We are not only establishing a hub in Kenya for business purposes, but we are keen to support a robust technology transfer so that Kenya also advances with a critical mass of young well-trained engineers, who will drive the manufacturing sector in the future,” Zeng said.

He also revealed plans to drill boreholes as part of the company’s corporate social responsibility, to mitigate the country’s water scarcity.

Established in 1958, LiuGong is today the world’s 10th-largest construction equipment manufacturer. It is particularly famous as the world’s largest wheel loader manufacturer.

The company’s product range includes heavy machines such as excavators, cranes, motor graders, and road rollers, all of which meet East Africa’s growing infrastructure needs.