A series of data shows the "ice and fire" in the domestic and foreign construction machinery market.
Recently, according to the statistics of 26 excavator manufacturers by China Construction Machinery Industry Association, in July 2022, 17,939 excavators of various types were sold, a year-on-year increase of 3.42%. However, there were 9,250 domestic units, down 24.9% year-on-year; 8,689 units were exported, up 72.8% year-on-year.
In addition, according to the statistics of 22 loader manufacturers by China Construction Machinery Industry Association, in July 2022, 8,158 loaders of various types were sold, a year-on-year decrease of 6.9%. Among them, 4,802 units were sold in the domestic market, down 17.9% year-on-year; 3,356 units were exported, up 15.2% year-on-year.
What caused the popularity of foreign construction machinery orders, but the poor performance of domestic construction machinery industry orders? The 21st Century Business Herald reporter investigated a number of enterprises in Hunan, a major province of construction machinery. It is understood that due to the continuous decline in orders in the domestic construction machinery market this year, Sany Heavy Industry, Zoomlion, Shanhe Intelligent and other leading construction machinery companies in Hunan have experienced a significant decline in performance.
"Previously, we expected that 2022 would be the most critical year under the influence of the policies of the 14th Five-Year Plan. We did not expect that the industry as a whole would be significantly affected by the epidemic, which would significantly lengthen the economic downturn, which would lead to a peak in the construction machinery industry. There are not a lot of sales orders in the period, and the off-season is even weaker than before." Zhu Jianxin, deputy general manager of Shanhe Intelligent, told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter.
At the same time, construction machinery companies in Hunan have begun to actively explore, from the layout of product lines to improving the stability of products, hoping to usher in a new round of growth opportunities.
Domestic construction machinery orders "downward cycle"
Since April 2021, China's construction machinery industry has entered a downward cycle, and domestic sales of construction machinery have continued to decline.
Hunan, which has leading construction machinery companies such as Sany Heavy Industry, Shanhe Intelligence, Railway Construction Heavy Industry, and Zoomlion, is a major manufacturing province. It is understood that there are more than 400 industrial enterprises above designated size in the construction machinery industry chain in Changsha. In the latest list of the top 50 global construction machinery manufacturers in 2022, four construction machinery enterprises in Changsha, Hunan, including Zoomlion, are on the list, with a combined sales of US$29.195 billion, making it a veritable "capital of construction machinery".
But this year, construction machinery enterprises in Hunan Province generally performed poorly. Among them, Sany Heavy Industry and Zoomlion in July this year's performance forecast for the first half of 2022, their net profit fell by more than 60%. As one of the leading companies, Sunward Intelligence has also been greatly affected. According to Sunward Intelligence's release of the performance forecast for the first half of 2022, it is estimated that the net profit attributable to the parent in the first half of 2022 will be 0-79.7331 million yuan, compared with 531.5537 million yuan in the same period last year. , down 85%-100% over the same period last year.
Hu Junke, a professor at the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering of Central South University, said in an interview with a reporter from the 21st Century Business Herald that the situation facing Hunan Construction Machinery as a whole is relatively unoptimistic, mainly from three aspects. First, the advantage of Hunan Construction Machinery is not in excavators, but In recent years, Hunan construction machinery enterprises have been vigorously developing excavator products. After several years of deployment, Hunan excavator enterprises are facing a market decline when they continue to invest in large-scale mass production.
"Secondly, the biggest advantage of Hunan Construction Machinery is concrete machinery. The downturn in the real estate market in the past two years has given a greater impact to the industry. The third is the super equipment for underground engineering, that is, shield machines, which are mainly used in subways. The construction of the subway is a barometer of the macro economy, and cities will only build subways if they have money, and the impact of the epidemic on the macro economy in the past three years is obvious to all, which has also led to a sharp decline in the output of shield machines.” Hu Junke pointed out.
Yuan Zhen, executive secretary-general of Changsha Construction Machinery Industry Association, told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that in addition to market economic factors, in the first half of 2021, the construction machinery industry has achieved too high growth, especially in March it reached its historical peak , which made the base in the first half of 2021 too high, and was one of the factors that led to the sharp decline in sales orders in the first half of this year compared with the same period last year.
In this context, the self-adjustment of enterprises is particularly important. After years of deep cultivation and development, the Hunan construction machinery industry has been relatively mature. Facing the downward stage of the industry, these companies have expressed that they have a way to deal with it.
Sany Heavy Industry stated in the previous announcement that the company has strengthened the research and development investment of construction machinery products and key components, especially the research and development of digital, electrified and international products and technologies.
In addition to leading enterprises, some small and medium-sized enterprises in the field of construction machinery have also taken corresponding measures when dealing with the downturn of the industry cycle.
Yang Zhenshi, chairman of Wuxin Tunnel Equipment Co., Ltd. located in Changsha Economic and Technological Development Zone, told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that the company's business is a very subdivided field of construction machinery, and 70%-80% of its orders come from railway construction.
"Faced with the industry downturn, the company is actively exploring new business scenarios. At present, it has planned to expand to the field of water storage, which is a very important part of the national plan. In addition, it will also expand to underground engineering fields such as underground mines and underground grain depots. Expansion, these are all areas supported by the state for construction and development, and there are very broad prospects in the future. In addition, the company is planning to develop overseas markets, and has already carried out system construction for overseas markets." Yang Zhenshi said.
In addition, Yang Zhenshi also said that the company will focus on tunnel equipment, continue to increase scientific research efforts, and innovate to consolidate the existing market.
Yuan Zhen said that, as far as he knows, compared with the last round of the downward cycle of the construction machinery industry, this time Hunan construction machinery enterprises have a deeper understanding of the impact of this round.
As we all know, the development of construction machinery industry is closely related to domestic infrastructure investment. In 2022, China issued a series of policies to stabilize growth. For example, at the executive meeting of the State Council held on June 2, it was deployed to increase the credit line of policy banks by 800 billion yuan to support the growth of infrastructure investment.
"With the support of national policies, the situation in the second half of this year should be better than that in the first half of the year, but we are still cautiously optimistic. Generally speaking, it will take some time for policies and capital transmission to affect the market. Everyone has reached a consensus on the recovery of the construction machinery industry in half a year." Yuan Zhen pointed out.
Zhu Jianxin is still very optimistic about the future market of China's construction machinery. "At this stage, the problem of unbalanced development in China is still obvious, and the construction machinery industry still has a broad market. For example, projects in the major sectors of new infrastructure and 'Tie Gongji' will continue to make efforts in the future. In the field of rural construction, there will be a large number of farmland, water conservancy and other fields that need to achieve intensive and large-scale operation and development. This requires corresponding construction machinery and equipment to implement, and in the future, intelligent and intelligent development must be realized. During this period, every link has room for development, transformation and upgrading of the construction machinery industry."
China Machinery Manufacturers Vigorously Tap Overseas Markets
In fact, in July this year, the overall excavator orders "turned positive" for the first time this year, and the decline in loader orders was also significantly reduced compared to the first half of the year.
Behind this, it is related to the booming overseas construction machinery orders in the first half of this year, the overseas sales of many construction machinery companies have achieved substantial growth, and some overseas regions even experienced shortages.
In the first half of this year, the total export value of China's construction machinery industry reached 19.89 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 32.3%. Exports have achieved continuous growth for more than 50 consecutive months.
"From the perspective of the market, not all construction machinery categories are declining. For example, some new energy products, aerial work machinery and other products are all growing against the trend. In addition, construction machinery companies in Hunan Province have diversified For example, Sany Heavy Industry is promoting the industrial Internet, etc. In addition, everyone is actively expanding the export market of construction machinery.” Yuan Zhen said.
This is indeed the case. In the interview reply of CRCC to the 21st Century Business Herald reporter, CRCC pointed out that since the implementation of the overseas priority strategy, the amount of newly signed overseas contracts and operating performance have been in a continuous growth trend. In 2020, due to the epidemic, overseas business will be affected to a certain extent. In 2021, gradually recover. In the first half of this year, the value of newly signed overseas contracts achieved a year-on-year increase of 126.25%.
"The huge recovery space brought about by the gradual stabilization of the global epidemic has boosted the demand for infrastructure investment and construction, and provided room for the growth of overseas business." CRCC pointed out, "At present, our overseas product market share has further expanded, and we are fully promoting shield tunneling. Machines and other tunnel equipment realize 'China's equipment, the world's equipment'."
Zhu Jianxin also said that Sunward's overseas market grew by about 60% in the first half of this year. In the follow-up, he is very optimistic about the company's overseas business, and it is expected that the proportion of sales in overseas markets will reach 30% this year.
"At present, the company's entire line of products are popular overseas. Coupled with the layout of the international market in recent years, including the distribution of overseas subsidiaries, localized operations, etc., this provides a good guarantee for the next growth." Zhu Jianxin Say.
Many Chinese construction machinery companies are also conducting "localization" overseas. For example, CRCC pointed out that due to its wide geographical coverage and the difficulty of cross-regional and cross-cultural communication in overseas markets, it is the general trend to respond to customer needs in a timely manner, approach the market for business operations, and comprehensively promote localized marketing.
"We have been committed to localized operations, and now overseas regional institutions have covered all continents and major countries, and foreign employees and localized service teams are also being established. Combined with the region, we will gradually select and develop high-quality agents to form localized team management and localization. The improved service system will further enhance the company's reputation in the international market." CRCC said.
However, although the orders in the foreign market are hot, the proportion of sales in the overseas market is not high compared to the domestic market, and there is still a lot of room for improvement in the future.
"On the one hand, our brand influence in the construction machinery industry still needs to be improved. On the other hand, in terms of after-sales service system, we are not as complete as foreign companies. Moreover, from the actual 'going out' path, our overseas Most of the market depends on the overseas investment of central enterprises, bringing our equipment to the sea." Yuan Zhen said.
Hu Junke also pointed out, "Our products basically have no gap with foreign countries in terms of function, and even some products are in the lead, but there is still a gap in product stability. If construction machinery really wants to go abroad, it will ultimately depend on the performance of the product. In the future , Hunan and other domestic construction machinery enterprises still need to be problem-oriented, strengthen innovation in weak areas, and finally achieve full recognition of Chinese products in foreign markets."