Qi Jun, the honorary chairman and special consultant of China Construction Machinery Industry Association, concluded at the recent meeting of its members that 2021 has been a year of changeable situations. Under multiple challenges, construction machinery industry colleagues have overcome difficulties and completed tasks well and achieved good results.
Overall stable growth
According to the statistics of the association, the industry has maintained a high-level operation trend on the basis of rapid growth in 2020. From January to October this year, the operating income of the key enterprises contacted by the construction machinery industry associations increased by 26% year on year. Sales of major products increased by 33.3% year on year. Exports increased by 61.3% year on year. In spite of the high base of the previous year, the decline in market demand for some products after May of this year, the increase in restrictions on energy and raw materials, the poor supply of some accessories, the continuous increase in export costs of products and the frequent epidemic spots, the industry has experienced high and low levels before and after operation this year, continued downward market sales since the second half of the year and increased challenges faced by enterprises in production and operation throughout the year, Overall, the industry still maintains a high-level trend of operation and maintains stable growth in general. At the same time, the industrial enterprises have made great achievements in development energy, structural adjustment and other aspects, which strongly supports the high-quality development.
The import and export markets are developing rapidly. From 2021 to October, the export amount of construction machinery in China was 27.220 billion US dollars, up 61.3% year on year, with a trade surplus of 24.45 billion US dollars and an increase of 10.27 billion US dollars year on year. Exports are expected to exceed US$30 billion throughout the year. Among them, exports of large excavators, crawler cranes, electric forklift trucks, large off-highway dumpers and other high-end construction machinery are growing rapidly.
Science and Technology Innovation as Key Power
Su Zimeng, president of China Construction Machinery Industry Association, said 2021 was the beginning of the 14th Five-Year Plan and the key year for the high-quality development of China's construction machinery industry. The whole industry has reached a high consensus and continuously increased R&D investment in science and technology. According to incomplete statistics, R&D expenses of 12 enterprise groups increased by 35.4% year on year from 2021 to October according to Association Fast Report statistics.
"New technology and application of shield tunneling with extra-large diameter in construction machinery industry in 2021,""Key technology of TBM safe and efficient tunneling control in deep composite strata tunnels (lanes),""Multi-source collaborative intelligent detection technology and equipment development of road and bridge,"""Key technology and application of construction safety of large construction machinery in rail transit,"" and other 4 projects won the second prize of National Science and Technology Progress.
In recent years, the state has continuously increased investment in new infrastructure and accelerated major national strategic projects. On the basis of continuous breakthroughs in key technologies, the construction machinery industry has developed and manufactured large-scale rotary tower cranes, large all-terrain cranes, large lifting fire trucks, large crawler cranes, integrated down-hole drilling rigs, etc. A batch of important technical equipment, such as large diameter earth pressure balanced shield machine, mud level balanced shield machine and large diameter open hard rock excavator, have provided key equipment for our national economic construction and key and difficult projects and achieved outstanding achievements.
Green Intelligent Products are Favored
With the continuous development and application and promotion of intelligent control technology, more and more unmanned and intelligent control have been realized in the field of construction machinery in China, which effectively meets the requirements of intelligent construction work, expands the work scene in the field of construction, shortens the work time, reduces the labor intensity of operators and ensures the consistency of construction quality.
In recent years, green development has become an important part of high-quality development of the industry. Achievements have been made in such aspects as electrodynamics of construction machinery, upgrade of emission standards, green construction technology and equipment, product lightweight and efficiency improvement, achieving green upgrade of construction machinery and presenting a 100-year competitive development situation.
Intelligent products were launched in November alone. Zoomlion Zhongke held a conference on new technologies of new energy products and carbon fiber composite materials, and issued 15 new models (16 sets) of new energy main engine products and new parts, as well as domestic carbon fiber arm pump trucks with innovative technologies. Guangxi Liugong Group is the first in the industry to launch three unmanned construction machinery based on 922F excavator, 856HMAX loader and 6626E roller. Shantuo Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. is the first pure electric bulldozer in the world and the first unmanned bulldozer in China. Shanhe Intelligent Pioneer 5G+ Intelligent Drilling Rig was officially released.
Promoting Industry Development to a New Level
Qi Jun said that in 2022, the international environment is still complicated and severe, the task of domestic epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development is still arduous, and the construction machinery industry will face more severe challenges. He suggested that colleagues in the industry should increase both domestic and foreign markets to ensure the healthy and sustainable development of enterprises.
At present, with the rapid development of China's construction machinery industry, there are also potential risks. Some industrial enterprises do not work hard on product quality, innovation and customer service, but blindly pursue market share and regard disordered price competition as the only means of market competition, which seriously affects the healthy and sustainable development of industrial market. It is suggested that colleagues in the industry pay close attention to the industry risk and firmly oppose using price competition as marketing means to win the market. It is hoped that the industrial enterprises will have a long-term foothold, live within their means, ensure a reasonable profit space, avoid price wars, create a good market environment, strictly control risks and jointly promote the healthy and sustainable development of the industry.
Su Zimeng predicts that although there is a great downward pressure in the construction machinery industry in 2022, the stable and sustainable development environment remains unchanged, the strong toughness to support stable and progressive economic recovery remains unchanged, various favorable factors are accumulating, the strength of cross-cycle regulation policy is increasing, and the market demand growth toughness will be increasing constantly. In 2022, a batch of major development strategies, modern infrastructure system and major projects in the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan will be constructed one after another. Policies and measures such as rural rejuvenation, new urbanization and major strategies for regional development will fall further down. Digitalized and intelligent transformation will continue to accelerate, which will provide strong support for the high-quality development of construction machinery industry. We must seize the important development opportunity period of our country and continuously promote the innovation and development so as to ensure the power and promote the development and promote the high-quality development of construction machinery industry to a new level.
