At the beginning of April, the excavator sales data of all provinces in the regional market were constantly updated, and the decline was greater than expected.
According to the data of "year-on-year change of excavator sales in March 2022" surveyed by China Construction Machinery Market Research Center, among the 14 provinces surveyed, the excavator sales in 7 provinces decreased by more than 70% year-on-year, another 3 provinces decreased by 60% ~ 70%, and the smallest decline in Xinjiang also reached 48%.
Affected by factors such as repeated epidemics, low project operating rate and deterioration of equipment payment collection, the sales of construction machinery and equipment represented by excavators remained cold in March 2022, with a year-on-year decline compared with February.
The cooling demand caused by the lack of funds and the lack of project construction has become a direct inducement for the steep decline in the sales of domestic excavators.
Although since 2022, the central government has continuously released signals of positive economic stability maintenance, and all localities have "moderately advanced" infrastructure layout. However, the implementation of special bond funds still takes time, and the relevant progress is obviously delayed.
Moreover, due to the impact of the new wave of epidemic, some enterprises in some areas temporarily reduced production (stopped production) and stopped work, the normal production and business activities of relevant upstream and downstream enterprises contracted again, and the construction progress slowed down again and again.
Whether the specific investment funds are in place or the commencement and landing of key projects, they are still not fully transmitted to the downstream level III and IV regional markets, and the sales performance has not improved.
In the first three weeks of March, the operating hours of excavators monitored by the domestic circulation market decreased by 22.98% compared with 2021.
The impact on the stability of the supply chain undoubtedly aggravates this situation to a certain extent. The logistics cost of raw materials and finished products has increased, and the supply shock pressure has increased, resulting in prolonged delivery cycle, poor circulation and blocked sales. From the statistical data, the supplier delivery time index constituting the manufacturing PMI was only 46.5% in March, the lowest since March 2020.
Of course, the magnitude of this year-on-year decline also needs to consider the base effect of the high growth cushion in the same period last year (2021). If the novel coronavirus pneumonia can be effectively controlled in April, and infrastructure investment will continue to fall, the effect of counter cyclical policy will gradually show up. Especially at the end of the year, the implementation of the "Non State Road four" emission standard for non road mobile machinery will lead to the upgrading of old equipment and the temporary backlog of market demand. Besides, the new market equipment will be returned to the market in the two quarter, and the sales volume will be changed in the two quarter.
Of course, there are also views that this "terrible" cliff like decline in March may not be a bad thing for the whole industry.
During the market downturn, some construction machinery agents choose to "lie flat", which will make it difficult for the post market service in the whole machine sales market, and the manufacturer's direct takeover will also face huge loss risk. It is more necessary to call on manufacturers to pay attention to the current situation of channel operation and give appropriate policy support to win-win and coexistence.
"Although the current situation is unbearable for us, and most agents are expected to be in a loss situation! However, we can clear some weak excavator brands and make the industry competition return to rationality." A construction machinery industry agent told reporters.
2022 is undoubtedly a severe test for agents. However, in this round of adjustment, the agents who have strengthened the deep cultivation of regions and customers and persisted in the transformation of China's construction machinery industry will not become the most valuable resource in the industry in the future?!
