Italian snowmaking company enjoys dividends of Beijing 2022

SHIJIAZHUANG, July 2 (Xinhua) -- It has been three years since Italian snowmaking company TechnoAlpin settled in Zhangjiakou, the co-host city for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Not long ago, the ice rink enclosure made in Zhangjiakou was exported to Thailand.

TechnoAlpin group, headquarted in Bolzanoin, Italy, is a global leader in snowmaking, with a 60 percent market share in the snowmaking equipment market. The company has served six of the last eight Winter Olympics and will provide snowmaking equipment and automation systems for Beijing 2022.

"We have benefited enormously from the Olympic Games," said Pierpaolo Salusso, general manager of TechnoAlpin's Zhangjiakou offshoot.

The 37-year-old Turin native was assigned to China in 2016. TechnoAlpin established its Chinese branch in Sanhe, Hebei Province in February 2014, and settled in Zhangjiakou in July 2018.

"When I first came to China, Beijing had just successfully applied for the Olympic Games and China's skiing market was still in its infancy. But now China's skiing atmosphere is very strong," said Salusso.

He added that Zhangjiakou has become the spearhead of China's ice and snow equipment industry, and Chongli is the largest area for high-end skiing in China.

"We are closer to the market in Zhangjiakou, a strategic place where we can serve some of our most important customers," he said.

When bidding for the Winter Olympics, China made a solemn commitment to the International Olympic Committee to have 300 million people involved winter sports. In order to seize the opportunity of the Winter Olympic Games, Zhangjiakou launched the construction of its ice and snow sports equipment Industrial Park in February 2017.

"The Industrial Park focuses on the development of personal light equipment such as ski suits, snowboards and ski shoes, as well as heavy equipment such as snowmakers, snow pressure machines and cableways," said Mei Xiaochun, executive deputy director of Zhangjiakou's high-tech zone.

Zhangjiakou has sought to provide a friendly business environment for the development of the ice and snow industry, and has introduced policies to promote industrial development. Enterprises at the Industrial Park are exempt from rent in their first three years of operation, and pay only half rent for the following two years.

With COVID-19 still spreading globally, TechnoAlpin's business development has also been affected. with its Chinese branch currently the only one to operate normally.

"Now our Sanhe company is mainly engaged in sales and project management business, while Zhangjiakou is mainly in manufacturing and R&D," Salusso said. He added that when the epidemic broke out in Wuhan at the beginning of last year, the company's business was also affected. However, thanks to China's quick control of the epidemic, the business of its Chinese branch has returned to the right track after a brief downturn.

Based on the Chinese market, the Zhangjiakou branch of TechnoAlpin has also developed fire-fighting robots and dust control and haze removal equipment.

"We are optimistic about China's development prospects. If the coronavirus continues, our company will transfer more business to Zhangjiakou for production in the future," said Salusso.

Salusso's wife and two-and-a-half-year-old son also live in China. Every Monday, Salusso takes the high-speed railway from Beijing to Zhangjiakou, returning to Beijing on Friday. He is used to shuttling between the two cities.

It used to take three or four hours to drive from Beijing to Chongli, but with the completion of the high-speed rail link from Beijing to Zhangjiakou at the end of 2019, the journey now takes only 50 minutes.

Zhangjiakou has become Salusso's second home in China, and Chongli's major ski resorts are his most familiar places.

"Many of our important customers are in Chongli. To some extent, I watched these ski resorts grow up," said Salusso.

Salusso's hometown Turin held the 2006 Winter Olympic Games. "I am also the host of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. We will serve the 2022 Winter Olympics with first-class technology and products. I believe that many foreigners will come to China to experience the charm of ice and snow, " he said.