As the domestic epidemic prevention and control situation continues to improve, the construction of new infrastructure projects has started to increase the demand for construction machinery, and the sales of excavators continue to pick up. According to statistics from the China Construction Machinery Industry Association, in May 2020, a total of 31,744 sets of excavation machinery products were sold, a year-on-year increase of 68%, and a growth rate of more than 50% for two consecutive months, far exceeding industry expectations. Among them, the domestic market sold 29,521 units, a year-on-year increase of 76.32%. This result shows that the excavator market in the second quarter is still in the annual cyclical peak season and maintains a high prosperity.
In the past three months, a series of data from the excavator has been improving. 3. Sales of excavators in April hit record highs and second highests successively. Although sales in May decreased slightly from the previous month, the year-on-year growth rate still rose sharply, setting a record high for the month. A wave of price increases by mainstream manufacturers in mid-April clearly did not affect the pick-up industry's recovery momentum.
According to Komatsu excavator construction hours that reflect the degree of infrastructure activity, China’s Komatsu excavator construction hours reached 147 hours in May, an increase of 3% year-on-year, reaching the highest value since October 2018. This is also the highest since 2019. The Komatsu excavator started operating hours for the first time for two consecutive months, the year-on-year growth rate was positive (3.7% in April). The number of operating hours in May is still running at a high level, indicating that domestic fixed assets investment activities such as infrastructure are still relatively active, and the current construction machinery industry is still maintained at a relatively high level.
Exports: growth rate remained basically the same as last year for two consecutive months
On the export side, affected by the overseas epidemic, the domestic export market for excavators was sluggish. Export sales in May were 2,223 units, a year-on-year increase of 3.3%. The export growth rate remained basically the same as last year for two consecutive months. Despite a slight increase from the previous month's 1% growth rate, it is still far from the 20.7% growth rate for the same period in 2019.
Shanghai Securities released a research report to reduce the expected growth rate of domestic excavator exports from 40% to 15% in 2020. However, some professional institutions predict that the impact of the overseas epidemic situation will be concentrated in the second quarter based on the results of recent research on the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, but the outlook for the year is still not pessimistic.
Tonnage structure: large, medium and small excavations have achieved a significant increase of more than 50%
From the perspective of tonnage structure, the sales volume of big excavation (≥30t) in May was 4147 units, an increase of 59.3% year-on-year; the sales volume of medium excavation (20~30t) was 7559 units, an increase of 70.2% year-on-year; the sales volume of small excavation (<20t) was 17815 Taiwan, a year-on-year increase of 83.7%, of which, the small digging rose the most.
In terms of market share, large, medium and small excavations accounted for 14%, 26% and 60%, respectively. In May, only the proportion of big digging showed an upward trend; the proportion of middle digging declined for the first time in 2020, breaking the trend of increasing from January to April (the middle digging market accounted for 21% and 22%, respectively) , 25%, 27%); although the proportion of small digging has decreased from April (1%), but still perform strong, occupying an absolute advantage.
The year-on-year growth rates of large, medium and small excavations were 59.3%, 70.2% and 83.7%, respectively. This is since April, all three tonnages have achieved a positive year-on-year sales growth for two consecutive months, and they have achieved a substantial increase of more than 50%. rising.
Due to seasonal changes, downstream construction and machinery demand in May will gradually enter the off-season, but in May this year, "off-season is not weak", continued high growth. Industry insiders analyzed that the delays in market orders caused by the Spring Festival and epidemic situation and the compression of the construction period, the steady rise of infrastructure and the gradual implementation of various boosting policies, the change in demand caused by the tightening of environmental protection policies, and the new round of equipment replacement period Factors such as the arrival are all reasons for the continuation of the peak season. In addition, according to the start of construction and the upstream production schedule, the excavator sales growth rate is expected to exceed 60% for three consecutive months from May to July, and the industry boom will continue to exceed market expectations.
