"Looking forward, looking forward, the east wind is coming, and the steps of spring are approaching."
In July, the total sales volume of all kinds of excavator products in China finally ended the 14 month long negative growth and ushered in a counter attack!
According to the industry statistics of China Construction Machinery Industry Association, in July 2022, a total of 17939 mining machinery products were sold, with a year-on-year increase of 3.4%, becoming the first month with a positive year-on-year growth rate since May 2021.
Among them, the sales volume of excavators in the domestic market was 9250, a year-on-year decrease of 24.9%. Although the growth rate is still negative, the decline has continued to narrow for four consecutive months, becoming the month with the lowest year-on-year decline in 2022.
According to the operating hours of Komatsu excavator, which reflects the active degree of infrastructure construction, the operating hours of Komatsu excavator in China in July was 100.1 hours, a year-on-year decrease of 5.4%, which was significantly narrowed, and the trend was basically the same as that of domestic excavator sales.
At the beginning of the third quarter, a large number of new projects were intensively launched in many places. According to the data, in July, 3876 major projects were started nationwide, with a total investment of 2393.059 billion yuan. Among them, infrastructure projects are still one of the key areas where construction machinery industry is in the low ebb period.
In terms of exports, the export sales volume in July was 8689 sets, up 72.8% year-on-year. After a slight decline in the growth rate of sales last month, the growth rate of this month rose again, and it was the fourth highest month in 2022.
In addition, the export sales volume in that month accounted for 48.4% of the total sales volume, which reached a new high in 2022. According to the latest foreign trade data released by the General Administration of customs, in July, China's total export value was 2.25 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.9%. The export performance again exceeded expectations, and the recovery of foreign trade was more and more obvious.
Since 2022, due to the continuous impact of COVID-19 and geopolitical friction and conflicts, the export of China's construction machinery industry has faced more challenges. However, thanks to the positive response of the state to important issues such as the industrial chain supply chain and the resumption of production of enterprises, the export sales of China's excavators have always maintained a high level. Such brilliant achievements show the resilience of China's excavator industry to the continuous improvement of foreign trade.
From the perspective of tonnage structure, the sales volume of large excavation (≥ 28.5t) in July was 1240 units, down 35.9% year on year; The sales volume of medium excavation (18.5 ~ 28.5t) was 2066 sets, a year-on-year decrease of 42.2%; The sales volume of small excavation (< 18.5t) was 5944 sets, a year-on-year decrease of 12.7%. The year-on-year growth of sales volume of large, medium and small excavation is negative, of which, the year-on-year decline of China excavation is the largest.
In terms of market share, large excavation, medium excavation and small excavation account for 14%, 22% and 64% respectively. With the decline of sales demand of medium and large excavation, the proportion of small excavation sales has expanded.
In July, the growth rate of domestic market continued to narrow and the growth rate of export market increased significantly. Both of them jointly promoted the recovery of the sales growth rate of excavator market in that month, which will boost people's confidence to a certain extent. According to the analysis of professional institutions in the industry, the issuance of new special bonds has been basically completed, and the growth rate of infrastructure investment in the third quarter will usher in the peak of the whole year; According to Liu Weiping, Vice Minister of the Ministry of water resources, as of the end of July, 25 major water conservancy projects had been started in China, 31800 water conservancy projects were under construction, and the investment scale was 1.7 trillion yuan... All kinds of favorable conditions are expected to stimulate the demand of the excavator market. However, whether the "spring" is really coming needs further observation.
