Construction machinery supporting industry export situation

From January to June this year, the total import and export volume of China's construction machinery products was US$8.901 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 27.72%. Among them, exports of 7.291 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 19.05%, a surplus of 5.679 billion US dollars, basically the same as last year. According to customs statistics (81 types of construction machinery products, including 69 mainframe products and 12 spare parts), from January to June, China's import and export of construction machinery products totaled US$8.901 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 27.72%. Among them, exports amounted to US$7.291 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 19.05%, which was lower than the national growth rate of exports of mechanical and electrical products by 29.94%, accounting for 0.012% of the total exports of machinery and electronic products; import of US$1.612 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 51.25% (the growth of imports of mechanical and electrical products nationwide 12.09%), which accounted for 0.004% of the total imports of machinery and electronic products in the country; a surplus of US$5.67 billion, which was basically the same as last year.

Significant increase in import prices During the first half of the year, China’s construction machinery import market remained concentrated in Asia and Europe, including 839 million US dollars from Asia, a year-on-year decrease of 56.11%, accounting for 52.1% of the total imports of construction machinery, and US$556 million from Europe, down year-on-year. 34.54%, import prices have increased significantly compared to the same period last year, reaching 260.76%. The data shows that China has exported engineering machinery to 200 countries or regions, of which 22 countries and regions have exported more than US$100 million, accounting for 62.89% of the total export value of construction machinery.

The rapid growth of innovative products At present, China's construction machinery has shown a decline in exports of traditional products, rapid growth in exports of innovative products, the overall host exports basically the same situation. The export of construction machinery includes the whole machine and parts. From January to June, the host export amounted to 6.14 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 1.76% year-on-year; the export of component parts was 1.147 billion U.S. dollars, down 61.36% year-on-year, causing the overall export of the construction machinery industry to decline by 19.05. %. Among them, motor graders, road rollers, cranes, high horsepower bulldozers saw a noticeable decline in exports; tire-type self-propelled cranes, dredgers, and more than 100 tons of all-terrain cranes, the rapid growth of crawler excavator exports ensured a slight increase in host exports. .

The export of products with low traditional technology content in China is limited, and high-tech special equipment is gradually being accepted by foreign customers. It shows that although the sales of construction machinery industry is limited by domestic and international demand, technological upgrading in the industry has become a consensus and it has entered an acceleration track. The effect is shown to lay the foundation for China's participation in international competition. The heavy weight of the host computer is still serious. In addition, despite the severe decline in exports of parts and components in the first half of the year, it should also be noted that the exports of both components (bulldozers or side-dug bulldozer shovels) and (hoppers, buckets, grabs, and clips) increased by 112.64% and 9.99%, respectively. This shows that the construction machinery components supporting industries have made rapid progress in recent years. Some of the structural components companies have gradually entered the international market for some foreign counterparts OEM supporting or supplying cross-border component suppliers. At the same time, we must also realize that the path of changing the situation of heavy machinery and light fittings for construction machinery enterprises is still a long way to go.

Decline in sales of traditional products In recent years, China’s construction machinery companies have continued to cross-border mergers and acquisitions, Zoomlion acquired Italy’s CIFA, Liugong’s acquisition of Poland’s HSW, Sany’s acquisition of Germany’s Putzmeister, and XCMG’s acquisition of Schneider and a series of acquisitions. With international leading technology, Zoomlion has developed a carbon fiber boom truck with more than 100 meters. Liugong has supplemented the product line of the bulldozer plate and produced a C8 concrete pump truck in conjunction with SANY. The development of these new products has greatly shortened the distance between China and the international advanced level. Especially in the field of concrete pump trucks, Chinese products can fully represent the development level of the world's industries. In the first five months of this year, China’s construction machinery products had 21 types of commodities exceeding US$100 million, and the total exports of 21 kinds of commodities reached US$6.135 billion, accounting for 84.15% of the total exports.

Most of the 21 products except for dredgers saw sales volume increase and prices fall. The export volume and average export unit price of the four products of the front shovel loader, other crawler-type bulldozers, other road-building machines and graders and other motor-driven roads all showed different degrees of downward float compared with the same period of last year. In particular, the front shovel loader exported a total of 836 million U.S. dollars from January to June, ranking the largest export volume of the entire construction machinery industry. However, the sales volume and average export price of the aircraft decreased by 18.46% and 16.65% respectively compared with the same period of last year, which is also at the forefront of the industry's downward trend. This shows that China’s traditional machinery exports a large amount of equipment, and various manufacturers continue to carry out low-cost sales, coupled with the pressure of appreciation of the renminbi, will have a great impact on these export-oriented products, eventually resulting in “scale increase, efficiency decline".

Relative to Caterpillar, Komatsu and other international construction machinery manufacturers, China's most lacking in the international market is a loyal customer base. After years of development, China's construction machinery industry has emerged in the industry, Xugong, Zoomlion, Trinity, Shantui, Liugong and other famous brands. In recent years, although the products of various manufacturers have gained popularity in some regions, we still have a long way to go in respect of the cultivation of professional customers' loyalty compared to some top international brands. In addition, after many years of development, China’s export of construction machinery has always been dominated by “general trade”. Some manufacturers of the same industry have “highly similar” products and have low technological content. They have flooded into some markets at low prices. The impact on local traditional industries has been caused. This has led some countries to limit the import of Chinese products by increasing the number of certification requirements, raising the technical fortresses, and adjusting tariffs.

The construction of an international service network platform summarizes the characteristics of the export of the construction machinery industry in the past ten years. It was carried out by the earliest state-owned enterprises. Through various exhibitions, foreign companies went to China to find products and manufacturers, went to the enterprises to go out to sell and find local agents, until recently. To the strength of the manufacturers really go out and establish their own direct sales agencies for local sales. Comparing with the global layout of world-famous construction machinery manufacturers, the problem of after-sales service (including the supply of spare parts, technical training and maintenance training) in some Chinese enterprises also needs attention. This is not very obvious during the period of rapid growth of the market. With the weakening of the international market demand, the full exposure of the issue will also have an impact on exports.

At the same time, after many years of development, China's engineering machinery products have greatly improved product types and technical performance. In particular, the manufacturing and processing of structural parts have received approval from the international industry in recent years, and some foreign-funded enterprises have manufactured product structures in China. All are produced by domestic supporting manufacturers. In summary, it is recommended that the country should make overall arrangements and encourage the adjustment of product structure under the existing scale. Each company should also lead the core products, take into account the online products, and gradually implement the access mechanism for export enterprises of construction machinery products, so as to enhance "China Made" international image.