Sany, a Chinese exporter of cranes, concrete pumps and other construction machinery, opened an assembly plant and design shop near Cologne on Monday and predicted it would be selling 1 billion euros worth of machinery into Europe annually by 2015.

Wengen Liang, the firm's founder and chief, said the plant had cost 35 million euros so far, but a total of 100 million euros would be spent on the site by the time it had been completed.

Civic officials called it the biggest new industrial site ever built by a Chinese company in the European Union. The plant is to assemble 1,870 concrete-mixers and concrete pumps from Chinese parts for the European and North African market annually.

The chief executive of Sany Germany GmbH, Dongdong He, said the plant would in time step up parts procurement from Germany.