China construction machinery industry analysis - trade situation

China construction machinery industry overall export situation analysis

From the overall situation of exports, affected by the depression of the domestic construction machinery industry, sales of construction machinery products generally declined in 2023. Some construction machinery manufacturing enterprises to increase the expansion of overseas markets, in 2023, nearly half of China's construction machinery products for export, the total export volume of construction machinery accounted for 43% of the total sales. In 2023, the export sales of excavators, road rollers, graders and crawler cranes exceeded domestic sales, and the export volume accounted for 53.86%, 54.59%, 85.73% and 55.95% of the sales volume of the product, respectively, and international sales offset some of the impact of domestic sales decline on the industry. Among them, excavator export sales exceeded domestic sales for the first time in 2023, both domestic and international sales showed a high and low development trend, domestic sales declined, exports from growth to decline, and export growth was insufficient.

From the perspective of export product structure, in 2023, the total export volume of China's construction machinery products is 258,617 units, mainly excavators, lifting work platforms and loaders, and the export volume of the three categories in 2023 accounts for 41%, 30% and 18% respectively, accounting for 88.56% in total.

According to the statistics of the China Construction Machinery Industry Association, in 2023, in the 11 construction machinery categories included in the statistics, only the export volume of excavators and flat machines declined, falling 4.04% and 6.2% to 105,038 and 5663 units, respectively. The remaining 9 categories have achieved positive year-on-year growth, of which the larger increase is tower cranes, aerial work vehicles, truck cranes and pavers, 2023 exports were 1905, 71, 4772 and 209, respectively, an increase of 130.3%, 65.1%, 62.4% and 56%, an increase of more than 50%.

Analysis of sub-regional export of China's construction machinery industry

From the regional point of view, in the past three years, China's construction machinery export pattern is relatively stable, Asia is the main export region of China's construction machinery, 2023 from January to November, China's construction machinery exports to Asia cumulative amount of 17.97 billion US dollars, an increase of 8.22%, accounting for 40.27%; Followed by Europe, the total export value of 11.82 billion US dollars, an increase of 26.7%, accounting for 26.49%; North America, South America, Africa and Oceania, respectively, the cumulative export value of 4.734 billion US dollars, 4.068 billion US dollars and 1.91 billion US dollars, the cumulative export value increased by -6.88%, 8.26%, 14.8% and -2.7%, respectively. The cumulative export value accounted for 10.61%, 9.23%, 9.12% and 4.28% respectively.

From the development trend of China's construction machinery exports in the past three years, the growth rate of export amounts in all export regions has shown a downward trend. Among them, the growth rate declined the most in South America, from 104.1% in 2021 to 8.26% in 2023, and the growth rate of other regions declined by more than 40 percentage points. Among them, North America and Oceania in 2023 from January to November cumulative decline. In the case of the year-on-year growth of the export volume of China's main construction machinery products, the growth rate of export amount in various regions continues to decline, reflecting that there is a certain degree of mismatch between the pursuit of scale and high-quality development of China's construction machinery industry, and the product structure still needs to be further optimized.