Construction machinery sector grows six times in 10 years

The construction machinery industry is one of the pillar industries for the development of national economy. In the past 10 years, China's construction machinery industry has achieved remarkable results in development reform and economic structure adjustment. Sales and production of the industry have risen to the top of the world. The industry's comprehensive strength, international competiveness, and industrial status have improved significantly.

"Sales and production of China's construction machinery now rank first in the world, and made-in-China construction machinery is now in every part of the world", said Lv Ying, director of the Statistics and Information Department of China Construction Machinery Association. Lv Ying told the reporter that after 10 years of rapid development, the technology standard and reliability of all categories of China's construction machinery products have reached or even exceeded that of international leading level, and there are numerous resounding Chinese brands in the global construction machinery industry.

Sales and production have jumped to the top of the world.

China's construction machinery industry has been developing rapidly for the past decade. In 2011, operation revenue of the industry reached RMB 546.5 billion Yuan, growing by more than 6 times over the RMB 77.3 billion Yuan in 2002.

China's WTO membership presents China's construction machinery industry with opportunities and challenges to confront international renowned construction machinery manufacturers; it also provides great momentum for the improvement and upgrading of China's construction machinery products. In the past 10 years, sales of China's main construction machinery products grew by almost 10 times. Among these products, hydraulic excavator saw sales of 173,700 units in 2011, growing by about 20 times in the past 10 years; sales volume of construction crane was 35,457 units in 2011, whereas that in 2001 was merely 4,000 units. Many machinery products were developed from scratches, and have been put into bulk production, examples including rotary drilling rig, all-terrain wheeled crane, underground horizontal directional drilling, and tunnel boring machine.

In export and import, construction machinery has also yielded bright results. China has become the third largest country in the world in terms of construction machinery export, its export value having increased from US$ 740 million in 2002 to US$ 15.9 billion in 2011; there are 15 models of key export products, and their aggregate export value accounts for 20 percent of sales value. In the past 10 years, the total volume of import and export of China's construction machinery has grown by nearly 8 times, among which import value has grown by more than 3 times and export value by more than 20 times. Meanwhile, China's import and export of construction machinery has achieved a major leap: from a trade deficit of US$ 1.298 billion in 2002 to a surplus of US$ 6.864 billion in 2011. 

New breakthroughs in large equipments

For years, some of China's large construction machinery and equipments have been dependent on import. In order to change that, some key Chinese enterprises, supported by China's industrial policies and financial policies in recent years, have made continuous efforts to explore and innovate and have achieved new breakthroughs in the manufacturing of large equipments. The self-supply rate of construction machinery has increased considerably, and was as high as 88.5 percent in 2009, 5.8 percentage points higher than the 82.7 percent at the end of the 10th Five-year Plan.

China has achieve brilliant results in the development of key technological equipments, including 200-ton hydraulic excavator, 525 horsepower bulldozer, 12-ton loader, 500-ton to 1,000-ton all-terrain crane, 1,000-ton to 3,000-ton caterpillar crane, large concrete box girder lifting equipments for high-speed railway construction, and tunnel boring rig with a diameter of 12 meters. Currently, China is capable of manufacturing the 26 types of products that are commonly used internationally, and its technology is up to the standard for substituting imported goods. Among these products, large caterpillar crane, all-terrain crane, large bulldozer, large concrete pump truck, and paver, among others, are beginning to be sold to all over the world.