The new competition

In November 1992, the Shanghai Port Machinery Company (ZPMC) was established. The initiator was 59-yearold Guan Tongxian, who headed up the company until 2010. ZPMC aimed to establish itself in the market offering large-scale harbor container cranes, a sector that was traditionally dominated by European companies such as Liebherr or Demag, as well as some North American and Japanese suppliers. Nine years after it was founded, ZPMC had reached the position of global market leader in this business; in 2007, its market share was already estimated to be more than 75 percent. Up to this point, the company had earned profits above industry standard that could not be sustained during the crisis of 2009/2010. Like many companies in the industrial goods sector, ZPMC posted losses in 2009 and 2010. As the company has been listed on the stock exchange in Shanghai since its founding, its figures are publicly available. However, the main owner of the corporation is — via several investment companies — the Chinese state. The Chinese government wanted to strengthen its program “Revitalizing the Great China” with the establishment of ZPMC. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.