Release date: 2024-09-12 Source: China Concrete Network Author: China Industry News
It is said that the construction machinery industry, represented by excavators, is like a besieged city. In the past few years, people outside the industry looked at the city from afar, and they were all envious of the huge financial resources in the industry. In recent years, as the industry has entered a downward cycle, profitability has declined and traffic dividends have disappeared. For people in the city, it is a waste to eat and to abandon it.
This sluggish situation and trend seem to be turning around in the first half of 2024.
“With the accelerated implementation of macroeconomic control policies, excavators and loaders, which are closely related to infrastructure construction, have bottomed out and rebounded. Sales of excavators in the domestic market have achieved positive growth every month since May, and the bottoming trend is obvious. "A few days ago, Su Zimeng, president of the China Construction Machinery Industry Association, used "bottoming out" and "obvious bottoming" to give a positive signal for the economic performance of the construction machinery industry in the first half of the year.
The clouds are clearing, and the industry is operating generally smoothly.
With the introduction of policies such as national real estate support and large-scale equipment renewal since 2024, the demand for construction machinery inventory renewal is expected to accelerate.
Starting from the second half of 2021, the construction machinery industry, which has experienced five years of positive growth, has entered a downward cycle, which has lasted for three years. "In the first half of this year, demand for some product lines of construction machinery was sluggish and orders were insufficient, resulting in fierce market competition, downward product selling prices, and difficulty in collecting accounts. Problems such as this still hang over the industry." Su Zimeng said frankly, coupled with the lack of growth momentum in the world economy, external The complexity, severity, and uncertainty of the environment have increased, and business operations and industry recovery are still facing many difficulties and challenges.
The ebb period is a critical period for thinking about the future development direction of the industry. It is also an opportunity for companies in the industry to surf the sand and select the best among the best.
Data show that in the first half of the year, the sales volume of the twelve major categories of major products included in the statistics of the China Construction Machinery Industry Association showed a bottom-level stabilization characteristic. The cumulative sales at home and abroad were 968,900 units, a year-on-year increase of 4.58%. Among them, domestic sales totaled 597,100 units, a year-on-year increase of 0.31%; exports totaled 371,700 units, a year-on-year increase of 12.3%.
In terms of profitability, the association focused on contacting enterprises with operating income operating at a high level, with a cumulative year-on-year increase of 0.14%; total profits continued to achieve restorative growth, with a cumulative year-on-year increase of 3.87%; accounts receivable increased by 1.61% year-on-year, inventories decreased by 6.14%, and industry operating risks Overall controllable.
Listed companies in many industries have also recently handed in their "midterm exam" transcripts. XCMG Machinery (000425.SZ) disclosed its semi-annual report on the evening of August 28. In the first half of this year, the company's revenue was basically stable, with operating income of 49.632 billion yuan, continuing to lead the domestic industry. High-end product revenue increased by more than 10% year-on-year, and new energy revenue increased significantly by 26.76%.
Sany Heavy Industry (600031.SH) released its 2024 semi-annual report on August 29. During the reporting period, it achieved operating income of 38.738 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.95%; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 3.573 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.80% .
On August 29, Liugong (000528.SZ) disclosed its 2024 semi-annual report. In the first half of the year, it achieved operating income of 16.06 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.81%; net profit attributable to the parent company was 984 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 60.20%.
Shantui Shares (000680.SZ) disclosed its semi-annual report on the evening of August 22. The company achieved total operating income of 6.508 billion yuan in the first half of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 33.81%; net profit attributable to the parent company was 418 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 38.49%.
从上述公司发布的2024年半年报来看，业绩提升的原因中，既包括海外业务收入的增长，也有深化改革、调整结构后的发展。山推股份表示，公司主动应对市场形势变化，加快市场、业务及产品三大结构调整，国内市场产品占有率进一步提升，出口业务高位增长。柳工则表示，业绩提升主要因公司拥有较高的品牌知名度、市场占有率，具有显著竞争优势；吸收合并广西柳工集团机械有限公司后实现整体上市，为释放混改活力提供了良好的基础，提升公司的内生发展动能。
"We estimate that excavator sales in 2024 are expected to be flat or slightly down year-on-year, and the bottom of the construction machinery industry is expected to appear. Domestic leading manufacturers are expected to fully benefit from the industry recovery." Yao Jian, an analyst at Guohai Securities, believes that with the growth of national real estate since 2024 Policies such as support and large-scale equipment renewal have been launched one after another, and the demand for inventory renewal of construction machinery is expected to accelerate.
Driven by internal and external factors, new “opportunities” for transformation and upgrading emerge.
Su Zimeng pointed out that with the intensification of macro-control and policy effects, especially large-scale equipment updates will release effective market demand for construction machinery, the development environment of the construction machinery industry will steadily improve.
The sluggish demand for construction machinery is not only affected by the external environment, but also has corresponding internal logic. In its industrial chain, in addition to equipment original manufacturers, there are also many spare parts manufacturers. The improvement of the supply chain and the construction machinery aftermarket has reduced the cost of replacing spare parts and lengthened the replacement cycle of construction machinery and equipment.
Nowadays, the large-scale equipment update policy is once again increasing. The National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance recently issued the "Several Measures on Increasing Support for Large-Scale Equipment Renewal and Trade-in of Consumer Goods", coordinating and arranging about 300 billion yuan of ultra-long-term special government bond funds to increase support for large-scale equipment renewal and trade-in of consumer goods.
The implementation of this round of ultra-long-term special treasury bonds has largely solved the problem of policy funding for equipment renewal and trade-in of consumer goods. For the construction machinery industry, this is an external opportunity.
Su Zimeng pointed out that with the intensification of macro-control and policy effects, in particular, large-scale equipment updates will release effective market demand for construction machinery, and the development environment of the construction machinery industry will steadily improve.
The internal driving force comes more from the structural upgrade of electrification and informatization of construction machinery. The electric construction machinery market is rising just like the sun.
According to statistics from the China Construction Machinery Industry Association, electric construction machinery represented by electric loaders, forklifts, and lifting work platforms have seen significant growth. In the first half of 2024, a total of 5114 electric loaders were sold, a year-on-year increase of 361%; Electric forklifts sold 468557 units in the first half of the year, an increase of 24.2% compared to the same period last year, accounting for 70.8% of the total forklift sales volume; The electric rate of the lifting work platform exceeds 90%.
In addition, with the substantial improvement in R&D and manufacturing capabilities of batteries, electric drives and control systems, electric off-highway dump trucks, excavators, cranes, bulldozers, concrete machinery, etc. have been mass-produced and put into use.
In industrial development, standards come first. Recently, the first batch of seven national standards for electric construction machinery was released, accelerating the market promotion of electric loaders and filling the gap in national standards for my country's electric construction machinery industry.
The reporter learned that the release of this batch of standards covers all aspects of the industry chain such as terminology, complete machines, energy consumption test methods, power battery safety, etc., helping to unify upstream and downstream technical specifications and standardize the technical requirements for the transformation and development of the electric engineering machinery industry. At the same time, it also provides unified technical basis and testing specifications for the purchase and testing of equipment, accelerates the marketization process of electric construction machinery, and provides technical support for the green transformation and upgrading of the industry.
Some experts predict that from a global market perspective, the market space for electric loaders will be close to 30 billion yuan and the market space for electric excavators will be close to 75.6 billion yuan in 2025. They will become the "hot meat" that global engineering machinery manufacturers focus on. Engineering New and old machinery players are deeply involved in this revolution in the electrification of construction machinery.
"New energy products have entered the fast lane of growth, with revenue increasing by 26.7% year-on-year." XCMG Machinery's semi-annual report shows that the company's new energy loader revenue in the first half of the year nearly tripled year-on-year, accounting for 23.3% of total revenue, a significant increase of 15.1 percentage points year-on-year. The industry Sales volume ranks first.
Expand territory and actively seize the global market
Regarding the global construction machinery market, Yao Jian analyzed that globalization has broad prospects and overseas expansion has become the core driving force.
For current construction machinery companies, expanding overseas business and increasing sales in high-profit areas is nothing new. In fact, growth from overseas markets has increasingly become an important support for the performance growth of construction machinery companies, and has helped them achieve steady growth during the industry adjustment period.
In the first half of the year, XCMG Machinery’s domestic revenue was approximately 27.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 8.72%; however, overseas revenue continued to grow, reaching 21.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.8%, and international revenue accounted for 44%, a year-on-year increase of 3.37 percentage points. . While international revenue increased, gross profit margin also increased to 24.41%, a year-on-year increase of 1.22 percentage points.
Specifically, the overseas share of excavators, loaders, road rollers, aerial work platforms and other products has increased. Overseas revenue from all-terrain cranes and off-road tire cranes has nearly doubled. Overseas revenue from excavators has increased by 16% year-on-year. Global synergy results for concrete equipment have begun to show. Overseas revenue from pump trucks and mixing stations has doubled, and mixer trucks have nearly tripled.
"Compared with the domestic market, which is in the bottom stage of the big cycle, the overseas market has huge space and low cycle volatility." The relevant person in charge of XCMG Machinery said that the increase in the proportion of overseas revenue is expected to further drive the improvement of XCMG's operating performance and profitability, thus stably crossing the industry cycle.
113 road machines were delivered to the Philippines, more than 100 cranes went to the Middle East, 50 dump trucks were shipped to Saudi Arabia, 408 electric mixers were the first to pass the EU's new GSR regulations, the SY215E electric mid-size excavator made its debut in the Netherlands, and an order for 2,000 excavators was signed in Indonesia... Since the beginning of this year, Sany Heavy Industry has continued to exert efforts in overseas markets, establishing a global R&D system, developing products required by customers in different regional markets, especially high-end products in Europe and the United States, and investing in and building new smart manufacturing plants in South Africa and other places to accelerate the global high-end manufacturing layout.
Xiang Wenbo, chairman of Sany Group, said that in the past, the "internationalization" strategy was to simply sell products produced in China overseas, while the current "globalization" strategy is to turn product exports into industrial exports on a global scale. Allocate R&D, manufacturing and other resources to further promote localization and better meet the needs of global customers. "Sany Heavy Industry's external circulation market is mainly concentrated in Europe and the United States. If high-end products do not enter these markets, we will have no foothold on the main battlefield of globalization."
Yao Jian believes that globalization has broad prospects and overseas expansion has become the core driving force. From a regional perspective, since October 2023, the U.S. real estate market has gradually picked up, infrastructure investment has maintained a boom, and the industrial production index of the mining industry has basically maintained an upward trend, with slight fluctuations in 2024; demand in the European construction industry has been weak, and domestic brands have occupied a large share of the European and American markets. There is a large room for rate improvement, and it is expected to quickly open the European market relying on the advantages of electrification; the low urbanization rate in Southeast Asia provides long-term demand, and the Indonesian mining industry continues to prosper. Domestic brands are expected to quickly increase their market share relying on location advantages and cost-effective advantages.
“Although the adverse effects brought by changes in the external environment have increased and the international situation is severe and complex, my country’s construction machinery technology, products, and services have been increasingly recognized and recognized by international users, and the overseas business layout of industry enterprises has continued to improve, Upgrading, the industry's export volume will remain at a high level in the second half of the year." Su Zimeng further pointed out that in the long term, the industry's development confidence and determination coexist with opportunities and challenges, but the opportunities outweigh the challenges, and the favorable conditions outweigh the adverse effects. The machinery industry will show a stable and positive trend.
