2023 has quietly near the end, and the China domestic construction machinery market still seems to be bottoming out. In the face of the continuing downturn in the domestic market, many industry insiders have adjusted their expectations for this year as the bottoming out period of the domestic market, the upward inflection point of the time pushed to 2024.
In the first half of the year, the domestic construction machinery market is not satisfactory, the overall sales of mainstream products continue to be under pressure, while overseas exports have become an important means of hedging against the decline in the domestic market, and still maintain the growth trend. According to the China Construction Machinery Industry Association data statistics, in the first half of the year, the overall sales of 12 categories of products included in the statistics increased slightly, but the trend of the domestic market between the various categories of products is obvious: excavators, loaders and other large categories of products market sales generally declined; truck-mounted cranes, lifting platforms, and other 8 categories of products sales year-on-year growth of varying magnitudes, of which truck-mounted cranes have the largest increase in year-on-year growth of 27.9%.
On a quarterly basis, total sales of major products in the construction machinery industry in the first quarter fell by 1.17% year-on-year; in the second quarter, an increase of 4% year-on-year, a chain of 3.04%. Overall, the second quarter data show a positive trend, but taking into account the same period last year due to the epidemic prevention and control caused by the low base, micro-growth is also difficult to talk about the word "rebound".
On the export side, customs data show that in the first half of 2023, China's construction machinery import and export trade amounted to 26.311 billion U.S. dollars, up 23.2% year-on-year; exports amounted to 24.992 billion U.S. dollars, up 25.8% year-on-year. In some segments, the export sales of China's construction machinery have been close to or even exceeded the domestic market sales. According to statistics, from January to June 2023, a total of 108,818 excavators were sold, down 24% year-on-year, of which 51,031 units were sold domestically and 57,787 units were exported; from January to June 2023, a total of 56,598 units of various types of loaders were sold, down 13.3% year-on-year, of which 29,913 units were sold domestically and 26,685 units were exported.
Based on data for the first half of 2023, the construction machinery domestic market cycle bottoming out, export business growth is gratifying, internal and external, the market felt the quenching of ice and fire.On the one hand, by the infrastructure, real estate investment slowdown, downstream projects, the impact of tight funding, start-up delay, coupled with the downward cycle of equipment replacement into the end and environmental standards switching demand there is a certain degree of overdraft, resulting in the replacement of demand continued to fall back, the new demand has decreased sharply, the domestic market is expected to continue to be under pressure. On the other hand, in sharp contrast to the weak domestic sales, overseas sales of construction machinery in the first half of the performance of "steady progress", the market share continued to increase, exports to Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the rapid growth rate, further accelerated over the same period in 2022, the second half of the year, with the bottom of the overseas interest rate hike cycle, the economy is expected to maintain a high boom in exports, a soft landing.
In recent years, as the domestic construction machinery market has entered a period of adjustment, domestic construction machinery enterprises have focused on overseas. This year, China's leading enterprises in the construction machinery industry have accelerated the "sea", and continue to expand the export model categories, construction and improve the marketing network, construction machinery exports have just become the industry's new bright spot.
With the second half of the domestic construction machinery enterprises continue to optimize the product mix, the proportion of exports continue to improve, industry profitability is also expected to go up. Engineering machinery leading enterprises performance release space is larger, is expected to inflection point upward, while grasping the new round of technological revolution, industrial change and green low-carbon development opportunities, is expected to rely on internationalization, digitization, electrification from China's leading to the global leader in the development of globalization of construction machinery to provide new growth opportunities.
With the second half of the domestic construction machinery enterprises continue to optimize the product structure, the proportion of exports continues to improve, industry profitability is also expected to move up. Engineering machinery leading enterprises performance release space is larger, is expected to inflection point upward, while grasping the new round of technological revolution, industrial change and green low-carbon development opportunities, is expected to rely on internationalization, digitalization, electrification from China's leading to the global leader in the development of globalization of construction machinery to provide new growth opportunities.
The first half of the domestic construction machinery market environment is not optimistic, but the industry has always maintained perseverance and courage to move forward, seize the opportunity for development, keep pace with the times. According to the excavator in the eighth year for the renewal of the peak period of measurement, 2023 domestic excavator renewal demand bottomed out, renewal demand and exports will dominate the construction machinery industry bottoming out, 2024 is expected to usher in the inflection point!
