In February, the domestic sales of excavators doubled year-on-year, and the construction machinery industry is now a strong recovery signal



Reporter Xia Zihang

In February this year, the domestic sales of excavators nearly doubled year-on-year, and the recovery trend of the construction machinery industry was obvious.

"Looking forward to 2025, relevant national policies are expected to further accelerate investment in infrastructure and mining. At the same time, as the real estate industry gradually stops falling and stabilizes, it will have a promoting effect on the construction machinery industry. In addition, the large-scale equipment renewal policy is deepened, the degree of machinery replacing labor is deepened, and the resale of second-hand mobile phones overseas promotes the circulation of positive circulation, which will jointly promote the overall recovery of the construction machinery industry. On March 17, a person related to Sany Heavy Industry told a reporter from Shanghai Securities News.

Wen Zhigang, an expert in construction machinery leasing and operation management, said that optimistically, it is expected that the domestic sales of excavators in 2025 may exceed 140,000 units, an increase of more than 35%.

The domestic sales of excavators doubled year-on-year

"Overall, the fastest growth of small digging, in addition to large infrastructure, large projects, engineering miniaturization, fragmentation has gradually become the norm, driving the growth of demand for small digging. In addition, small digging has significant advantages in replacing manual labor with machines and diversified construction scenarios, which further pushes up its demand. A person in the construction machinery industry said.

According to the statistics of major excavator manufacturers by the China Construction Machinery Industry Association, 19,270 excavators of various types will be sold in February 2025, a year-on-year increase of 52.8%. Among them, domestic sales were 11,640 units, a year-on-year increase of 99.4%; 7,630 units were exported, a year-on-year increase of 12.7%.

From January to February 2025, a total of 31,782 excavators were sold, a year-on-year increase of 27.2%. Among them, domestic sales were 17,045 units, a year-on-year increase of 51.4%; 14,737 units were exported, a year-on-year increase of 7.37%.

Pacific Securities said that the domestic sales of excavators in February exceeded expectations, and the cumulative year-on-year growth rate from January to February was higher than last year, indicating that the domestic market of excavators has gradually come out of the bottom last year, and the demand is improving. With the continuous efforts of the policy side, the project start-up rate has gradually increased, and at the same time, the equipment itself has been updated cycle, and it is expected that the domestic sales of excavators will continue to rise year-on-year in 2025.

The data shows that relying on the soaring domestic sales, motor graders, loaders, truck-mounted cranes,forklift, road rollers, aerial work vehicles and other construction machinery and equipment in February The overall sales volume increased year-on-year, and the warmth was obvious.

"Excavators are regarded as one of the economic vanes, and earthmoving machinery represented by excavators is the first to recover, which also indicates that the construction machinery industry as a whole and the downstream of infrastructure are accelerating their recovery." Sany Heavy Industry said.

In addition, the operating rate and operating hours of excavators and construction machinery and equipment have also increased.

According to the Sany Excavator Index, the average operating rate of construction machinery in the country in January and February 2025 was 37.38%, a year-on-year increase of 2.92 percentage points. Among them, the average operating rate of excavation equipment was 42.61%, a year-on-year increase of 3.79 percentage points, which was the highest increase in the equipment of major categories. From a regional point of view, the average operating rate in January and February 2025 in the central region was 44.32%, a year-on-year increase of 6.02 percentage points, which is the region with the highest growth rate among all regions.

A number of factors drove the surge in sales

China Construction Machinery Industry Association said that this year's excavator sales in China have achieved a "good start". On the one hand, from January to February this year, the domestic sales of excavators continued the growth trend in the second half of last year, especially since this year, under the influence of factors such as the effective implementation of the stock policy and the introduction of a package of incremental policies, the domestic excavator market has shown a rebounding trend. The demand for excavators below 20 tons has increased, and the sales volume has increased significantly, mainly due to factors such as large-scale equipment renewal policies and new rural construction. On the other hand, the global competitiveness of China's construction machinery enterprises continued to improve, and export sales continued to grow on the basis of last year's high.

Relevant people of Sany Heavy Industry expressed three views to reporters:

First, a series of special bonds and ultra-long-term special treasury bonds have a positive effect on the sales of excavators. The construction machinery industry is a cyclical industry, the current industry is in the bottoming out stage, a series of policies effectively reach the "two" project, improve the downstream capital fundamentals, stimulate the demand for earthworks, and help excavator sales to accelerate the recovery.

Second, at present, small, medium and large excavations have fully resumed growth, reflecting the comprehensive recovery of farmland water conservancy, forestry, major infrastructure, municipal engineering, mining and other fields.

Third, with the gradual implementation of ultra-long-term special treasury bonds and local government special bonds, infrastructure investment will usher in a substantial improvement, and the sales growth rate of excavators and other construction machinery products of leading enterprises is expected to exceed that of last year.

"At the moment, the market situation is very good. However, this round of sales growth is not only driven by the demand side, but also the early update of old equipment, the rise of emerging leasing models and the early stocking of agents are also important reasons. The relevant person in charge of a leading construction machinery company believes.

According to reports, the last round of upward cycle in the construction machinery industry is from 2015 to 2023. According to the average service life of about 10 years, from 2025 onwards, it will gradually usher in the replacement cycle of construction machinery and equipment.

"In the last round of the cycle, domestic brands have greatly replaced foreign brands, the proportion of small digging structures has increased significantly, and the competition has become more and more fierce are the three main lines throughout the cycle. The increase in the proportion of small excavation structures has led to the continuous increase of the number of small excavations in recent years, and the corresponding update cycle has been shortened. Superimposed large-scale equipment renewal policy, boosting the excavator update tide ahead of schedule. The relevant person in charge of the above-mentioned head construction machinery enterprise said.

"In addition, a lot of second-hand equipment is sold overseas, leaving room for sales growth for new domestic machines." A person in the construction machinery industry believes.

At the same time, since the beginning of 2025, there are different models of construction machinery "shared leasing" economy in various places, some are operating leases with the characteristics of community e-commerce, and some are rented and sold under the slogan of "renting excavators and sending excavators". In general, the new business model has achieved rapid expansion in scale in some regions, and has also driven the sales growth of construction machinery and equipment.

In addition, the reporter learned that at present, agents in the construction machinery industry are hurrying to stock up, which has also boosted sales growth.Industry practitioners are generally optimistic about the trend in 2025, and under the influence of various factors, the construction machinery industry agents have higher stocks this year than in previous years.

Source: Shanghai Securities News