The U.S. enterprise Otis, a world-leading elevator manufacturer, is cashing immense business opportunities arising from the China's equipment and consumer goods renewal programs particularly in the upgrading of over 40,000 residential elevators in 2024 alone.
Deeply involved in the Chinese market for 40 years, Otis has established production bases in China's Tianjin, Hangzhou, and Jiaxing, and has set up a global research and development center and a high-speed elevator center in Shanghai.
As the largest elevator market in the world where over 80 percent of the world's new elevators being produced here each year, China has already become a strategic hub in Otis' global operations.
In March of this year, China's State Council issued an action plan aimed at fostering large-scale equipment renewal and trading-in of consumer goods. Recently, detailed measures supporting the action plan have been fully rolled out. Specifically, in the field of aging elevators, plans for 2024 include the use of ultra-long special government bonds to support local governments in upgrading over 40,000 residential elevators that have been in service for more than 15 years.
Currently, China has approximately 800,000 elevators that have been in service for over 15 years, among which around 170,000 elevators have been in use for over 20 years.
This provides huge market for Otis, which is upgrading its products to better meet the increasing demand.
"We also have solutions for modernization of other buildings as technology ages. Just like you would change anything in your house, your car. As elevators hit 15 or 20 years, they're ready for technology upgrades as well," said Judy Marks, Chair and CEO of Otis Worldwide Corporation.
At one of Otis' factories in Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA), hundreds of elevators are manufactured every day. In 2023, the production of elevators, escalators, and lifts in China reached 1.557 million units. This massive market, combined with its advantages in the industrial supply chain, has encouraged foreign companies, including Otis, to continue expanding their operations and investments in China through technological empowering and innovation.
In 2019, Otis partnered with the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Radio and Television Tower to design a custom-made inclined elevator, tailored to the unique architectural features of the tower. This elevator is suspended between the tower's columns and is one of the first inclined elevators in China.
"The Otis inclined elevator has been a very distinctive sightseeing elevator introduced to the Oriental Pearl Tower in recent years. It operates on a 60-degree inclined track and transports nearly 2,000 tourists daily, greatly improving the transportation capacity of the tower," said Ao Junming, deputy general manager of Shanghai Oriental Pearl Radio and Television Tower Co., Ltd.
The President of Otis China Luo Xiaoli said China is a great market for innovations like this.
"As far as innovation and digitalization is concerned, all the indicators that China is a very open economy that enable us to continue to grow our talent, grow our business and at the same time, we have also experienced the market openness of this market. The internationalization is a very market-oriented economy which makes it very friendly for investments like Otis here in China," said .
U.S. company sees great business opportunities in China's equipment renewal program
