At the end of October and the beginning of November 2021, construction machinery today conducted the third annual "survey on the survival status of Chinese construction machinery agents", investigated the main operation indicators of agents in the first October of 2021, and collected 564 valid questionnaires. The sample covers all provinces except Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. The sample agent brands are domestic, Japanese and Korean, European and American, of which domestic brands account for 50%.
The sample agents include agents from single province, multi province and prefecture level cities, of which 46% are from single province and 42% are from multi province. From the regional, brand and level distribution of the surveyed agents, it can basically reflect the current situation of the agency channels in China's construction machinery industry at the time point of the end of 2021.
Based on the statistical data of this survey, China Construction Machinery Industry Market Research Center analyzes the different aspects of construction machinery agent ecology. The main analysis results are as follows.
1、 Profit status of construction machinery agents: 39.29% of the agent enterprises suffered serious losses
From the analysis of the survey results, from January to October 2021, 70.24% of the agent enterprises were at a loss, and only 29.8% of the agent enterprises were in a state of low profit or profit. Compared with the survey results in the first quarter, the number of enterprises in loss decreased (from 41.2% in the first quarter to 39.3%), but the number of enterprises that can operate normally through subsidies from host manufacturers increased (from 27.5% in the first quarter to 31%). The number of profitable enterprises decreased (from 31.3% in the first quarter to 29.8%).
On the whole, the profitability of the agent group deteriorated from January to October 2021 compared with the first quarter of 2021. This means that the unbalanced profit pattern among manufacturers will deeply affect the channel integration and change of China's construction machinery industry in the medium and short term.
1. Cross analysis of agent profitability and market share
We divided all the surveyed enterprises into six categories. The first category is enterprises with profit and market share growth. These enterprises are in very healthy condition, accounting for 11.29%. The second category is the enterprises with profit and declining market share, which may have carried out strategic contraction. In order to maintain the enterprise profit, the sales volume has been reduced, accounting for 10.26%. The third category is the profit-making enterprises with the same market share, with relatively stable operation, accounting for 8.21%. The fourth category is the loss making and increasing market share enterprises, which have made a strategic loss layout, increased market share by increasing coverage and other means, and look forward to achieving greater profits in the future, accounting for 21.25%. The fifth category is enterprises with losses and flat market share. Their operations are dangerous and need high attention, accounting for 16.64%. The sixth category is the enterprises with losses and declining market share. The operation situation has been very dangerous and needs to be paid great attention, accounting for 32.35%.
2. Analysis on brand and market share of profitable agents
Among the profitable agent enterprises, the market share increased, decreased and remained flat, showing a 4:3:3 ratio distribution.
From the perspective of brands, enterprises with increased profits and market share + flat development, that is, enterprises with very benign development, account for 69.76% of domestic brands, 37.03% of Japanese brands, 25% of European and American brands and 16.67% of Korean brands.
The enterprises with declining profits and market share, that is, those with strategic contraction, account for 83.33% of Korean brands, 75% of European and American brands, 62.96% of Japanese brands and 30.23% of domestic brands.
On the whole, the operation of domestic brand agents is better than that of European, American, Japanese and Korean agents.
3. Brand and market share analysis of loss making agents
Among the loss making agent enterprises, the increase, decrease and balance of market share basically show a proportion distribution of 3:5:2. Among them, 46.05% of the agents are in the state of double decline, and the enterprise operation has serious problems that need to be adjusted.
From the perspective of agency brands, 56.76% of domestic brands, 50% of Korean brands, 20% of European and American brands and 6.25% of Japanese brands are loss making and market share increasing agent enterprises, i.e. strategic loss making enterprises.
The agent enterprises with losses and declining market share, that is, the agent groups with very dangerous operations, account for 50% of Japanese brands, 50% of European and American brands, 50% of Korean brands and 18.92% of domestic brands.
4. Cross analysis of agent brand, profit and market share
Domestic: double rise (26.25%), profit + market share (8.75%), profit + market share (11.25%), loss + market share (27.50%), loss + market share (10.00%), loss + market share (16.25%);
European and American Department: double rise (9.09%), profit + market share (22.73%), profit + market share (13.64%), loss + market share (4.55%), loss + market share (9.09%), loss + market share (40.91%);
Japan: double rise (2.33%), profit + market share (20.93%), profit + market share (13.95%), loss + market share (2.33%), loss + market share (20.93%), loss + market share (39.53%);
Korean: double rise (12.50%), profit + market share (12.50%), profit + market share (0%), loss + market share (0%), loss + market share (12.50%), loss + market share (62.5%).
2、 56.98% of construction machinery agents have different degrees of buyout behavior
Among the surveyed agents, 49.21% did not buy out in the first quarter of 2021 and 43.02% did not buy out from January to October 2021. The overall buyout situation is increasing.
However, the number of enterprises that bought out less than 50 inventory machines decreased from 42.86% to 41.86%. The number of enterprises that bought out 50 ~ 100 inventory machines increased significantly, from 3.17% to 9.30%; Enterprises that bought out 200 ~ 300, 300 ~ 400 and 400 ~ 500 inventory machines have increased. In other words, the situation of buying out inventory machines in large quantities will rise again. In order to compete for market share, some host manufacturers force agents to buy out inventory machines, forming market sales data that can not fully reflect the needs of users, and some agents take the initiative to buy out in order to pursue reward and rebate. The transaction behavior of buying out the inventory machine exacerbates the operation risk of the channel end and transfers the market risk from the production end to the channel end.
3、 The price war has spread from small tonnage models to medium and large tonnage models
From the feedback results of the survey on whether the sales of excavator models have lost gross profit, the price war has spread from small tonnage models to medium and large tonnage models. 96.51% of the investigated agents suffered losses during small sales excavation, 0.48 percentage points worse than that in the first quarter, 53.49% of the investigated agents suffered losses during sales excavation, an improvement of 0.48 percentage points, and 4.65% of the investigated agents suffered losses during large sales excavation, an improvement of 2.49 percentage points. From January to October, compared with the first quarter, the losses of medium and large excavation improved, while the losses of small excavation continued to intensify.
4、 The operating conditions of agents are challenging
Compared with the first August of 2021, from September to October, 82.56% of the surveyed agents' business decreased significantly, 73.26% of the agents' profits decreased sharply, and 65.12% of the agents' user repayment overdue rate increased significantly.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, China's construction machinery excavator market obviously began to enter a downward cycle. The agent group needs to be prepared for the winter and respond rationally to the possible continued downward trend of the market.
5、 Cash flow status and risk are the most anxious problems of agent decision-makers
From the perspective of the most anxious core issues of the agent decision-making level, there are three levels under the greatest pressure at the current stage: enterprise cash flow status, risk control and business strategic layout. Compared with the first quarter of 2021, the selection proportion of market share assessment has been reduced by 24.94 percentage points. The cash flow status and risk control of agent enterprises have exceeded the market share assessment and become the first two main problems of anxiety of agent decision-makers. Among them, risk control deserves high attention. In addition, agents pay more attention to the business strategic layout.
6、 Investigation on the adjustment of human resources of agents
From the feedback on the adjustment time point of human resources of agents, from January to June, July, August, September and October of 2021, 8.14%, 20.93%, 16.28%, 15.12% and 4.65% of agents adjusted their personnel contraction respectively.
By the end of October, 34.88% of enterprises had not adjusted.
7、 Prospects for the future of agent groups
From the feedback on the future outlet of agents, 46.51% of enterprises choose diversified operation, 17.44% choose Post transformation market services, 10.47% choose to take the initiative to carry out integration and M & A, and 9.3% of enterprises choose transformation lessors. Another 4.65% of enterprises chose to quit.
