What is the hottest industry in the first quarter of this year? Construction machinery should be one of them.
For a long time, the excavator has been regarded as the weather vane of the construction machinery industry, as well as one of the economic barometers. Statistics from the China Construction Machinery Industry Association show that 68,630 excavators were sold from January to March this year, of which 49,408 excavators were sold in March, an increase of 11.2% year-on-year. Domestic and export sales increased by double digits year-on-year.
From the data point of view, although the total sales in the first quarter decreased year-on-year, the sales of domestic excavators have generally experienced a process of restraining and then rising, which also means that China's economic growth rate is gradually picking up.
In this excavator sales data, how much does Changsha Enterprise contribute? And what will happen to the Changsha construction machinery industry?
Changsha's production and sales are booming
In the first two months of this year, China as a whole focused its energy on fighting the epidemic, and its economic development was affected. Coming to March, as the tide of reinstatement and production swept across the country, enterprises resumed work, projects were rebuilt, infrastructure investment gradually recovered, the excavator market returned to normal, and even "revenge consumption" began-the national excavation in March this year Aircraft sales reached a record, far exceeding the 44278 units sold the highest in a single month (March) last year.
This point is extremely consistent with the performance of Changsha construction machinery enterprises in the first quarter.
According to Yu Hongfu, director of Sany Group and chairman of Sany Heavy Machinery, in March, the output of Sany excavators has exceeded the historically highest output of Sany, and the market sales of Sany excavators have reached a record high again-industry data shows that Sany In March, global sales of excavators were 12,800 units, an increase of 14% year-on-year; domestic sales increased by 16% year-on-year.
The production and sales are also booming in Zhonglian Heavy Industry, another head enterprise of Changsha Construction Machinery. At a live broadcast of the "Earth Machinery Hi-Buy Fair" in February, Zoomlion won more than 600 product orders in just one hour. The company became a dark horse against the trend in the first quarter, creating a sales growth of more than 600% year-on-year, almost reaching the level of last year.
It is worth mentioning that from the perspective of the sales structure of excavators, the sales growth of large, medium and small excavators in the first quarter increased by 3.66%, -0.03% and 18.49% year-on-year respectively, of which the sales growth of small excavators was particularly prominent.
One of the key products of Shanhe Smart located in Changsha Economic Development Zone is Xiaodig. In the first quarter of this year, Sunward Intelligent has shipped products in batches. The overseas market increased by 40% year-on-year in February, and the overall sales performance in March reached a record high.
Construction machinery products have increased prices
Although the performance of the sales side is exciting, in the supply chain, the construction machinery industry represented by Sany, Zoomlion and Sunward Intelligence is facing an important problem: insufficient supply of imported parts such as hydraulic valves. The same situation has caused construction machinery manufacturers to make the same decision one after another: price adjustment.
On April 2nd, Zoomlion announced that the price of pump trucks was raised by 5% and 10%. On April 11, Sany Heavy Machinery increased the price of small excavators by 10% and the prices of large and medium-sized excavators by 5%. On April 15, Sunward Intelligent decided to increase the price of all series of excavators by 5% to 10%, and on April 17 raised the price of each hydraulic static pile driver by 50,000 yuan.
Regarding the reasons for price adjustments, Sany said that due to the sudden outbreak of the new coronary pneumonia epidemic in 2020, which has gradually spread to domestic and foreign markets, the upstream and downstream of the domestic and overseas industrial chains have been hit, and the overall production cost has risen sharply.
The chief team of CITIC Construction Investment Machinery Lu Juan analyzed and judged that the reasons for domestic construction machinery companies to adjust prices are that the epidemic has compressed the construction period, amplified the pulling effect of infrastructure and real estate investment on the demand for construction machinery, and expanded the domestic demand policy. Since the domestic demand has recovered rapidly, domestic construction machinery companies have continued to over-produce, and many models are in short supply. This is following the normal market law.
The team also pointed out the effect of the epidemic on this "price adjustment wave": affected by the overseas epidemic, some European and Japanese suppliers have stopped production lines, and the supply chain of core components has tightened, resulting in subsequent component purchase costs.
In addition, the Lu Juan team also stated that the industry's head companies hope to take this opportunity to break the dead cycle of the industry's "price war", enhance the industry's ecology, and create a virtuous cycle.
The price adjustment behavior of the three companies in Changsha is also the same. The market, supply chain, and industry ecology have become the incentives for price fluctuations.
Improving local matching rate is imminent
The popularity of the construction machinery industry not only changes the price, but also includes the acceleration of the optimization of the layout of the supply chain by construction machinery manufacturers, and more emphasis on the local matching rate.
Lu Juan's team analyzed that after this round of price adjustments, it is expected that the share of domestic parts and components companies will further increase: the tight supply chain caused by the overseas epidemic will accelerate domestic substitution.
At the second meeting of the first board of directors of the Changsha Construction Machinery Association held recently, 7 companies including Sunward Intelligent signed a "Letter of Intent for Cooperation in the Project of Maintaining Collaborative Supply Chain Management Upgrade". The relationship between the OEM and supporting enterprises will be Further deepen.
He Qinghua, chairman of Sunward, said at the meeting that increasing investment in domestic infrastructure to vigorously promote economic growth will inevitably bring a new round of peak demand for construction machinery. The rupture of the global supply chain will force the localization of the industrial chain, promote the transformation and upgrading of the industrial chain, promote the optimization of the industrial cluster ecology, and strengthen the construction of localized supply chains.
Xiang Wenbo, president of Sany Heavy Industry, thinks so. When answering the question "What impact will the epidemic have on Chinese enterprises" raised by CCTV Finance and Economics host Chen Weihong, Xiang Wenbo's first answer is the supply chain. He said that the impact of the epidemic on the global supply chain will promote the domestic substitution of core components and contribute to the improvement of the long-term competitiveness of China's equipment manufacturing.
Nowadays, the butterfly effect brought by the epidemic to the construction machinery industry is being highlighted. In the future, construction machinery manufacturers must not only quickly eliminate the negative effects of the epidemic, but also accelerate their commitment to the protracted war of manufacturing localization.
