The British Financial Times website published a report titled "Restoration of Chinese Construction Projects, Showing Signs of Economic Restart" on April 27, saying that with the sudden increase in sales, Chinese construction machinery manufacturers raised their prices. Early signs of a restart after a few weeks of shutdown during the pneumonia epidemic.
The report said that since the rebound in infrastructure construction activities in March and sales of construction machinery hit a record high, some major heavy equipment manufacturers in China have announced price increases of 5% to 10%. Manufacturers hope that the increase in equipment sales indicates that the economy will continue to recover.
In Anhui Heli Co., Ltd. (a forklift manufacturing company based in Hefei), workers have started working overtime on weekends since March to meet growing demand. An executive of the company said sales were “very strong” as infrastructure investment “bounced”.
According to reports, official data shows that after a 51% decline in February, excavator sales in March increased by 12% year-on-year.
Headquartered in Jiangsu Province, Hengli Hydraulic Co., Ltd. said that orders for high-pressure water tanks for key parts of excavators soared by more than 50% this month compared with the same period last year. An executive of the company said: "This shows that construction machinery sales will remain strong in the future."
More than 10 excavator manufacturers headed by industry leaders Sany Heavy Industry and Zoomlion Heavy Industry have raised prices, and construction machinery manufacturers quickly took action to take advantage of this trend.
According to the report, an executive at Guangxi Liugong Machinery Co., Ltd. said: "Our customers are eager to start new construction projects and they don't mind spending more money." The price of a series of products is up to 10%.
The CICC excavator utilization index compiled by the investment bank CICC increased by 13.7% in March and decreased by 22.4% in the first two months of this year.
CICC expects that this indicator will continue to "exceed expectations".
