Views Inside the Sieg Factory in Shanghai

[Martyn Edwards 1Participant @martynedwards1]

Images from a recent visit there buying machinery. All the machines are painted and specified to buyers requests. All the machines are manufactured in house unlike Weiss and others who buy the basic machines from local manufacturers and prepare them for export.

[Martyn Edwards 1Participant @martynedwards1]

[egaParticipant @ega]

Very interesting. Do they have their own foundry?

I have sometimes wondered whether the common misnomer, SEIG, translates to something in Chinese and, if so, what.

[Martyn Edwards 1Participant @martynedwards1]

I believe the name Sieg and Weiss were chosen to supposedly indicate German quality!

i think their foundry factory is elsewhere.

[Bill PhinnParticipant @billphinn90025]

Sieg was originally a joint venture with a German partner, which may explain the choice of name.

The Chinese name routinely given alongside Sieg is 西马特, which is possibly intended to be a phonic representation of the English word "smart". The three characters mean "west horse special", which is a pretty meaningless combination to someone hearing it as a purely Chinese word.

[Pete.Participant @pete-2]

I'm sure I've seen someone explain SEIG is an acronym, and spell out what each letter stands for, can't remember what though, and it's quite possibly not correct as with so much you read online.

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember12892]

[This posting has been removed]

[Oily RagParticipant @oilyrag]

West Horse Special – From past knowledge of working in China it is probably a Chinese 'joke' along the lines of 'A Trojan horse for the West'!

Best ones we had in the Automotive industry were 'Jiangling Gears' and 'Lee King' gaskets,.along with Knokon Pistons. These were real names as well!

I believe the factory is in Pu Dong but the foundry is in the old part of the city; all the foundries tended to be grouped together in an area, as were the Automotive R&D areas and the production factories located in another location. All very organised from the top down.

Edited By Oily Rag on 23/01/2021 15:40:23

[Bill PhinnParticipant @billphinn90025]

Posted by br on 23/01/2021 15:35:24:

西马特 comes up as Simat on google translate ?

Have a chinese contact if you want me to ask

br

Since Chinese is my second language and my spouse's first, you can trust my input.

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember12892]

[This posting has been removed]

[IanTParticipant @iant]

The Horse is considered to be 'hard working' by the Chinese – so it's probably something like 'Hard Working' 'Special' (for) 'West' .

I learned some Cantonese when I lived in the Far East and could sometimes get a free beer by speaking it out loud in my favourite local bar. The Chinese seemed to think my linguistic attempts were extremely funny – simple phrases (from my tourist guide book) producing howls of laughter. I was never sure if it was my pronunciation or that some wit had amused himself by thinking up amusing things for dumb Westeners (like me) to say. – probably both

IanT

[Bill PhinnParticipant @billphinn90025]

It's quite all right, br. I wasn't reprimanding you and I'm glad you're interested in these sorts of linguistic questions.

[Ketan SwaliParticipant @ketanswali79440]

Originally, SIEG was a joint venture between a Shanghai company and a German company Interkrenn.

When the JV stopped, SIEG adoped the idea of the generic corporations such as CMEC, which usually is a short form for 'China Machinery Imports & Exports Corporation'. CMEC normally followed by the name of the city or province it was in, as a company name. So back then, in SIEGs case, they would say that SIEG is a short form for ''Shanghai Imports & Exports Group' depending on who asked, because CMEC or CMC were and to a certain extent still are financially and politically powerful, most powerful of which was/is the Beijing branch, parent which owned ALL Chinese engineering based factories pre-privatization. Post privatization, CMEC/CMC Beijing are still silent partners with limited share holding in most such companies which were born pre-privatization. This relationship is a little complicated to explain.

Most international buyers in the late 1980's and early 1990's were used to the idea and meaning of CMC/CMEC/SMEC as abbreviations which they could understand when buying. It would be easier for purpose of communication, rather than saying that the factory which produces these machines is called Shanghai Zhonjing (SZ – but I cant remember the full name)…, which is part of a bigger group of companies under the SIEG umbrella.

Post privatization, some people at SIEG started to use the posher idea to suggest SIEG to be a short form for 'Shanghai International Equipment Group'.

In the early 2000s, the concept of branding was born…. Initially, Frank Hoose (FH) kept on saying SIEG in his YT videos. ARC presented the idea for this factory to promote and build their relationship further with Frank, and start using/adopting promoting the word 'SIEG' as a brand. Until then, the factory kept saying that we are factory SZ under the SIEG group, and that they will be happy to put any 'logo'/'branding on their machines as they were already doing with Harbor Freight and Clarke machines.

ARC was interested in promoting the machines as products made by 'SIEG' under a 'SIEG' brand. As FH was already popular in directly promoting the factory by the early 2000s, it made sense for the factory to start using new marketing strategies to stand on its own name.

The factory does own a foundry under the group. The main castings are produced in-house, at a different location well away from Shanghai. Non-critical castings out-sourced. To comply with government requirements, they are not permitted to have a foundry at the location where the machines are built.

Ketan at ARC.

edits for poor spelling.. sorry.

Edited By Ketan Swali on 23/01/2021 16:13:52

Edited By Ketan Swali on 23/01/2021 16:15:32

Edited By Ketan Swali on 23/01/2021 16:17:07

[SteviegtrParticipant @steviegtr]

Great explanation from someone who knows.

I just hope they can keep things running smooth with the Coal shortage problem at the moment.

Steve.

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Looks like the bloke in photo 4 might have got his wallet out anyway😉😉

 

Edited By V8Eng on 23/01/2021 17:19:18

[Bill PhinnParticipant @billphinn90025]

Whatever SIEG may have come to stand for for its international clientele, the name was chosen for its positive German meaning, as Martyn and I suspected.

This is from SIEG's own website:

SIEG品牌源自德国，SIEG是德语胜利的意思…

"The SIEG brand's origin is Germany. SIEG means "victory" in German."

(My translation)

Edited By Bill Phinn on 23/01/2021 18:12:28

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Bill Phinn on 23/01/2021 18:10:23:

.

(My translation)

.

… and, aside from the punctuation marks, entirely consistent with DeepL’s effort

[ which affirms my confidence in DeepL ]

MichaelG.

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember12892]

[This posting has been removed]

[Ketan SwaliParticipant @ketanswali79440]

Posted by Bill Phinn on 23/01/2021 18:10:23:

Whatever SIEG may have come to stand for for its international clientele, the name was chosen for its positive German meaning, as Martyn and I suspected.

This is from SIEG's own website:

SIEG品牌源自德国，SIEG是德语胜利的意思…

"The SIEG brand's origin is Germany. SIEG means "victory" in German."

(My translation)

Edited By Bill Phinn on 23/01/2021 18:12:28

Bill,

No one disputes the origin of SIEG or meaning. It just wasn’t used or promoted as a brand by the factory Pre early 2000s.

Ketan at ARC

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