Shandong Zhaowei Steel Tower Company: trusted supplier to MNOs and towercos worldwide

From its roots in China, Shandong Zhaowei Steel Tower Company (Zhaowei) is now expanding to include manufacturing capacity in Ethiopia. With ten years of experience, the company has grown to 20 engineers and 400+ staff. Since its early days, Zhaowei has paid great attention to the overseas market, while at the same time building its domestic presence as the audited supplier of China Tower Corporation and the State Grid of China. With a keen focus on quality and customer satisfaction, Zhaowei has an impressive roster of MNO and towerco clients around the world, as well as tier one OEMs Huawei, Ericsson and ZTE in the telecom field.

TowerXchange: Please introduce your company and history in the telecoms industry. 

The company was established in 2007 in the development area of Dezhou City, Shandong Province, China. Zhaowei has flourished as a result of the accumulated experiences from our parent company, adoption of scientific management, use of advanced equipments and the hiring of many talented staff.

Since its creation, the company tackled aggressive domestic expansion and nurtured overseas growth at the same time. And after ten years of intense work on R&D to improve the quality of our products and develop new solutions, Zhaowei has become one of the leading steel tower manufacturers in China, with a worldwide footprint.

Our products have been exported to Central America, Ireland, Kenya, Somalia, Angola and many other African countries. In Asia our clients are spread across the Philippines, Myanmar and Cambodia; we are also an audited steel tower supplier for China Tower Corporation, and work with Huawei, ZTE and Ericsson in the telecom sector.

We now have after-sales teams in Manila, Yangon and Dhaka. Our expansion also includes a new fabrication plant that is currently under construction in Ethiopia and will begin operations next year.

TowerXchange: The first question our readers want to know is ‘how proven are the structures in the field’ – please tell us about some of your clients and projects.

Our products and services have been proven by our customers, by our ten years of history, and by the thousands of towers standing worldwide.

Currently, we have a lot of projects in the Philippines, where we fabricated the first set of hybrid steel towers in the market and won the praises of our MNO customers. We are the preferred weather test tower supplier for the nuclear power stations in China, where almost all are 100m (and over) guyed towers and survived the beating of multiple typhoons.

TowerXchange: How should buyers distinguish between the quality of products offered by different tower manufacturers?

Towers can be easily judged by appearance. For example, at a glance, you can see if the cutting is straight, if the Hot Dip Galvanisation (HDG) surface is smooth and if the welding is clean and neat. If you have test tools, you can test the HDG thickness, the welding quality and the strength of the steel and bolts. You can’t hide quality issues with towers, because everything will be exposed during the installation!

TowerXchange: How should MNOs and towercos strike a balance between the cost and volume benefits of standardisation versus the needs to customise structures for different environments and wind loading?

Yes, it is like the two side of one coin. If a customer decides to standardise the structure across all sites, this will most likely result in higher costs as all towers will need to meet the highest requirements. Customers could decide to customise each site to their specific conditions, which may be a more affordable option. But on the other hand, standardisation could bring savings, since a lot of the work could be simplified and clients can also prepare stock towers.

In general, it is best to divide into several standard zones, in order to minimise the waste that may come with one set of standardisation.

TowerXchange: What are the most economical ways to strengthen a tower structure to accommodate extra tenants and handle more wind load?

Firstly, for new tower sites, towercos should consider upfront possible extra tenants and wind load, since strengthening a tower is not always an easy thing to do.

When it comes to existing sites, clients ask for economical yet efficient tower strengthening. As a steel tower manufacturer, we’ve worked on many strengthening orders and the way to approach this differs depending on the type of tower. For each project, we perform a structural analysis and decide the best way forward.

TowerXchange: How do you ensure the deliverability and easy installation of your structures?

Nowadays most tower structures are quite similar so the key when it comes to delivering and installing a tower is the quality control. We have a comprehensive QC system that spans the drawings, production and tower installation phases. We are always in communication with our clients to improve or revise our designs and to ensure ease of installation. And our large production plant (200,000 sq. mt.) ensures the fast deliverability of orders.

TowerXchange: When designing new sites, how do you balance the concerns of camouflage, cost and structural capacity?

Camouflage is becoming more and more important in the telecom field, however these solutions usually are more expensive than traditional towers. One of the ways to balance this is to adopt new or high strength materials, to reduce total weight, which then contributes to both cost savings and extra capacity.

TowerXchange: Please sum up how you would differentiate your solutions from your competitors?

As a private company, we have the flexibility to work and make decisions in an efficient way, and we really try to take advantage of that. Secondly, we always set up local after-sales teams for major projects, in order to provide attentive service to our clients. We also prioritise quality control and delivery time. In addition, we are building a fabrication plant in Ethiopia, which would allow us to shorten delivery times and enhance customer service for clients in the African region.