Construction machinery likes to export to a new high

Recently, with the sound of loud sirens, a Chinese giant ship carrying nearly 1000 XCMG excavators, loaders, graders and other construction machinery products set sail from Lianyungang port, Jiangsu Province to South America. This is the largest single batch export order of China's construction machinery industry in recent five years, playing a loud and victorious song of the overseas rise of made in China.

LV Ying, Deputy Secretary General of China Construction Machinery Industry Association, told reporters that since this year, overseas exports of construction machinery have continued to exceed expectations. In the future, under the gradually optimized distribution of sales and financing channels, leading domestic construction machinery enterprises are expected to enter the harvest period in the overseas market.

The volume of export trade hit a record high

Since this year, domestic construction machinery manufacturers have been extremely busy. From the production workshop to the sales channel, they are often in full load. Orders from home and abroad have filled the schedule.

On the large visual screen of Sany logistics company, shiny "in transit orders" lines intensively connect China with all over the world. Huang Dong, head of the International Business Department of Sany logistics company, said that more than 3000 sets of equipment had been delivered in the whole June, "I'm very busy".

Photo taken by Zhou Mi, reporter of Xinhua News Agency

Behind the busy order delivery is the "pretty good" overseas business.

In the first half of this year, Sany group's international sales revenue increased significantly by 80% year-on-year. Sales revenue in most major markets increased, including 50 countries and regions with an increase of more than 100%, including developed countries such as France and Russia, as well as developing countries such as India, Indonesia and Vietnam.

The export performance of XCMG, which is also the leader of construction machinery, is also very bright. One belt, one road, was released by the XXX group. "In the first half of this year, Xugong exports increased by more than 70% compared with the same period last year." Lu Chuan, President and Deputy Secretary of the Xugong Group's construction machinery Limited by Share Ltd, introduced that Xugong products have been distributed in 187 countries and regions around the world, covering 97% of the countries along the "one belt and one road", and the 30 among the top 30 countries.

According to the customs data, the export amount of China's construction machinery from January to June 2021 was US $15.071 billion, a year-on-year increase of 54.9%. In June, the export volume of the month was US $3.156 billion, a year-on-year increase of 94.8%.

"In the first half of the year, the total export volume exceeded US $15 billion, with an increase of more than 50%, an increase of 46.2% compared with the highest in the first half of 2019." Lv Ying said that the growth in the second quarter was significantly higher than that in the first quarter, with an increase of 61.9% in the second quarter, 15 percentage points higher than that in the first quarter. In particular, in June, the export volume stood at the level of US $3 billion for the first time, setting a monthly record, nearly doubling compared with the same period last year.

In terms of quantity, all kinds of construction machinery products are growing. At the enterprise level, the exports of domestic enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises are growing rapidly, large enterprises such as Sany and XCMG are growing significantly, and small supporting parts enterprises are also growing.

For the reasons for overall growth, LV Ying analyzed that it was the intersection of various factors that formed a higher than expected export peak. On the one hand, the global construction machinery industry has a relatively long industrial chain, and the epidemic has broken the normal supply chain, while China's industrial chain is relatively complete, and the overseas marketing and service system of enterprises is becoming more and more perfect and effective. On the other hand, affected by factors such as economic recovery after the epidemic in the international market, there is a strong demand for construction machinery in the international market. In addition, the price rise of bulk commodities such as steel and coal drives the mining, further driving the demand for construction machinery. In addition, the relief policy in the context of the epidemic is also helpful to enterprises.

Photo taken by Ding Ting, reporter of Xinhua News Agency

Taking the international market should play a "combined fist"

Behind the great increase in the export of construction machinery is the solid product reliability and the "combined fist" in the international market.

XCMG has unswervingly promoted the localization strategy of overseas key regions, deeply cultivated the main battlefields such as Africa, Southeast Asia, West Asia and Central Asia, played the radiation role of European R & D center and Brazilian manufacturing base on the high-end market, and built an efficient global coordination system in technological innovation, talent cultivation and market development.

Lu Chuan said frankly that in the future, XCMG will continue to resolutely promote the main internationalization strategy, but the expansion of the international market does not depend on the single fight of enterprises, but on the deep integration of supply chain, industrial chain and value chain.

Sany has also made great progress in service capacity-building, agent system construction, service parts system construction and digital work this year by enriching channel models and supporting domestic agents to go to sea.

LV Ying said that with the development of China's construction machinery industry, there is no absolute capacity gap between domestic brands and international brands. However, due to the brand positioning formed in the international market for a long time, domestic brands still face great challenges to move from China to the world.

From a regional perspective, the largest export market is Asia, accounting for half of the export volume. The second largest market is Europe, and the export volume is increasing slowly. The market scale of Africa and South America is limited, and the advantages of international brands are more obvious because of their long history of entry.

It can be said that at present, China's construction machinery is still in the exploratory period in the overseas market. LV Ying believes that in terms of accumulating experience, cultivating teams, establishing brands, clarifying ideas and changing ideas, none of the domestic construction machinery enterprises is absolutely in place, and none of them has said nothing, but on the whole, it is uneven.

He said that domestic enterprises have begun to explore multiple routes, such as local brands, foreign factories, localized operation, etc. no matter how to explore, and no matter the final result, as long as they use their energy, there will be a progress, which is the "fire seed".

In addition, LV Ying also pointed out that if we can promote the construction of overseas financial platforms, leasing platforms and second-hand machinery trading platforms, it will greatly help Chinese construction machinery enterprises "go global".

Photo taken by Xinhua News Agency reporter Luo Xuefeng

Facing the growth test in the business cycle

The hot sales situation is gratifying, but can this trend continue?

The construction machinery industry has recovered since the second half of 2016. If calculated according to the original 5-year cycle of the industry, the industry will enter the adjustment cycle in 2021 or 2022.

Xiang Wenbo, President of Sany Heavy Industry, believes that the construction machinery industry still has some periodicity. After several years of rapid growth, the sales volume of excavators in China reached a record high last year, more than 330000 units, and increased again this year. What is this concept? The sales volume of excavators in China is close to the total sales volume of all other countries outside China.

"I think the growth rate will definitely decline in the second half of the year." Xiang Wenbo predicted that the whole year should be flat or increase slightly. This adjustment of growth rate is reasonable from the development law of construction machinery industry.

In LV Ying's view, the trend of export growth can not be seen at the end, because the price of bulk commodities has not come down, and there is heating demand after entering winter, so coal consumption will increase. Without the influence of other changing factors, the export rate of construction machinery will probably increase significantly this year.

"If we talk about the cycle, we need to reposition." Lv Ying said that the market is so large that it can not grow at a high speed all the time. The growth rate must decline in many months in the second half of the year. At present, the international export volume and the domestic market scale are not in the same order of magnitude. It is difficult to say that it can make up for the vacancy of domestic growth slowdown, but it can play a certain role in balancing.

LV Ying also gave a reassurance about the concerns of the market. "There will be no cliff like decline in the industry this year," he sai