According to the statistical data of China Construction Machinery Industry Association, in February 2022, 24483 sets of various excavation machinery products were sold, with a year-on-year decrease of 13.5%, and the decline continued to narrow.
In the domestic market, the sales volume of excavators in February was 17052 units, a year-on-year decrease of 30.5%. Although it still maintained a large decline, the decline slowed down. Among them, the high base effect in the same period of last year (2021) is one of the reasons affecting the decline of growth rate in that month.
In February, the business activity index of the construction industry was 57.6%, up 2.2 percentage points from January. The construction of new projects has entered the improvement range, and the total number of PPP investment projects is increasing, especially the number of projects in the implementation stage, which provides some support for the excavator industry. According to the operating hours of Komatsu excavator, which reflects the activity of infrastructure construction, the operating hours of Komatsu excavator in China in February was 47.9 hours, an increase of 9.3% year-on-year. The operating hours of Komatsu excavator in China finally ended the trend of year-on-year decline for 10 consecutive months since April 2021. The year-on-year growth rate turned positive again, and there were signs of marginal improvement in demand. It is expected that after the temperature rises in March, the construction situation across the country will rise one after another.
In terms of export, the export sales volume of excavators in February was 7431, with a year-on-year increase of 97.7%, and continued to grow at a high speed. With the improvement of the competitiveness of domestic enterprises and the gradual recovery of overseas enterprises from the epidemic, the continuous expansion of overseas demand will continue to benefit the export of Chinese Excavator products. The export of excavators is expected to maintain a rapid growth in 2022, and it is expected to offset the impact of the decline in domestic sales on the industry to a certain extent.
In terms of tonnage structure, the sales volume of large excavation (≥ 28.5t) in February was 1537 units, a year-on-year decrease of 40.9%%; The sales volume of medium excavation (18.5 ~ 28.5t) was 4000 units, a year-on-year decrease of 46.1%; The sales volume of small excavation (< 18.5t) was 11515 units, a year-on-year decrease of 20.7%. The year-on-year growth of sales volume of large, medium and small excavation is negative, forming a huge contrast with the ultra-high growth rate in the same period of last year (2021).
In February, the sales volume of large excavation, medium excavation and small excavation accounted for 9%, 23% and 68% respectively. Among them, the recovery of domestic small excavation market is relatively good; The proportion of large excavation decreased significantly, becoming the smallest month in the past two years.
The 2022 government work report recently proposed to "moderately advance infrastructure investment". Although the scale of special bonds is the same, they will be issued "in advance" this year to help economic growth. The report further defines the goal of "steady growth", and infrastructure is expected to play an important supporting role. In February 2022, 393.14 billion yuan of special local government bonds were added, and 877.52 billion yuan was issued from January to February, which has reached 60.1% of the "early approval" of 1.46 trillion. The pace of investment has been appropriately advanced. Therefore, according to analysis and judgment, the demand release rhythm of the excavator industry is also expected to be advanced, and the demand expectation margin is improved.
