In February of this year, the domestic sales of excavators showed a nearly doubled year-on-year growth, indicating a clear recovery trend in the construction machinery industry.
"Looking ahead to 2025, relevant national policies are expected to further accelerate investment in infrastructure and mining industries. 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, large-scale equipment renewal policies will be deeply implemented, the degree of machinery replacing human labor will deepen, and the overseas resale of second-hand machine will promote a positive cycle in the circulation field. These factors will jointly promote the overall recovery of the construction machinery industry, "said a spokesperson from Sany Heavy Industry to Shanghai Securities News on March 17th.
Wen Zhigang, an expert in engineering machinery leasing and operation management, said that optimistically speaking, it is expected that the domestic sales of excavators may exceed 140000 units by 2025, with an increase of over 35%.
Overall, small excavators have grown the fastest. In addition to large infrastructure and engineering projects, miniaturization and fragmentation of projects have gradually become the norm, driving the growth of demand for small excavators. Moreover, small excavators have significant advantages in replacing manual labor with machines and diversifying construction scenarios, further driving up their demand, "said a construction machinery industry insider.
According to statistics from the China Construction Machinery Industry Association on major excavator manufacturers, 19270 units of various types of excavators were sold in February 2025, a year-on-year increase of 52.8%. Among them, the domestic sales volume was 11640 units, a year-on-year increase of 99.4%; 7630 units were exported, a year-on-year increase of 12.7%.
From January to February 2025, a total of 31782 excavators were sold, a year-on-year increase of 27.2%. Among them, domestic sales reached 17045 units, a year-on-year increase of 51.4%; 14737 units were exported, a year-on-year increase of 7.37%.
Pacific Securities stated that the domestic sales of excavators exceeded expectations in February, and the cumulative year-on-year growth rate from January to February has further increased compared to last year, indicating that the domestic excavator market has gradually moved out of the bottom from last year and demand is improving. With the continuous efforts of the policy side and the gradual increase in project commencement rate, coupled with the equipment's own update cycle, it is expected that the domestic sales of excavators will continue to rise year-on-year in 2025.
Data shows that, relying on the sharp increase in domestic sales, the overall sales of various construction machinery and equipment such as graders, loaders, gantry cranes, forklifts, rollers, and aerial work vehicles achieved year-on-year growth in February, showing significant warmth.
"Excavators are regarded as one of the economic indicators, and earthmoving machinery represented by excavators is the first to recover, indicating that the overall construction machinery industry and downstream infrastructure are accelerating their recovery, "said a relevant person from Sany Heavy Industry.
In addition, the operating rate and operating hours of excavators and construction machinery equipment have also increased synchronously.
According to the Sany Excavator Index, the average operating rate of construction machinery in China 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 mining equipment was 42.61%, a year-on-year increase of 3.79 percentage points, making it the equipment with the highest growth rate among major categories. From a regional perspective, the average operating rate of the central region in January and February 2025 was 44.32%, a year-on-year increase of 6.02 percentage points, making it the region with the highest growth rate among all regions.
Multiple factors drive a significant increase in sales
Officials from the China Construction Machinery Industry Association stated that the sales of excavators in China have achieved a good start this year. On the one hand, from January to February this year, the domestic sales of excavators continued the growth trend of the second half of last year. Especially since the beginning of this year, under the influence of factors such as the effective implementation of stock policies and the introduction of a package of incremental policies by the country, the domestic excavator market has shown a trend of recovery and improvement. The demand for excavators weighing less than 20 tons has increased significantly, with a significant increase in sales, mainly due to factors such as large-scale equipment renewal policies and new rural construction. On the other hand, the global competitiveness of Chinese construction machinery enterprises continues to improve, and export sales continue to grow on the basis of last year's high levels.
Officials from Sany Heavy Industry expressed three views to reporters:
First, a series of special bonds and ultra-long term special treasury bond have played a positive role in boosting the sales of excavators. The construction machinery industry belongs to a cyclical industry and is currently in the stage of bottoming out and rebounding. A series of policies have effectively targeted "dual" projects, improved downstream funding fundamentals, stimulated demand for earthworks, and helped accelerate the recovery of excavator sales.
Secondly, at present, the comprehensive recovery and growth of small, medium, and large excavations reflect the comprehensive recovery of fields such as agricultural water conservancy, forestry, major infrastructure, municipal engineering, and mining.
Third, with the gradual implementation of ultra long term special treasury bond and local government special debt, infrastructure investment will be greatly improved, and the sales growth of excavators and other construction machinery products of leading enterprises is expected to exceed that of last year.
At present, the market situation is very good. However, this round of sales growth is not only driven by demand, but also by the early updating of old equipment, the rise of emerging leasing models, and the early stocking of agents, "said a relevant person in a leading construction machinery enterprise.
It is reported that the last upward cycle of the construction machinery industry was from 2015 to 2023. Based on an average service life of around 10 years, it is estimated that starting from 2025, there will be a gradual replacement cycle for construction machinery and equipment.
In the previous cycle, the three main themes that ran through the cycle were the significant replacement of foreign brands by domestic brands, the significant increase in the proportion of small excavator structures, and the increasingly fierce competition. The increase in the proportion of small excavator structures has led to a continuous increase in the number of small excavators in recent years, and the corresponding update cycle has been shortened. Combined with the large-scale equipment update policy, it has promoted the early arrival of the excavator update wave, "said the relevant person in charge of the aforementioned top construction machinery enterprise.
In addition, many second-hand equipment sold overseas have left room for sales growth of new machines in China, "said a construction machinery industry insider.
At the same time, from the beginning of 2025, different models of shared leasing economy for construction machinery have emerged in various regions, some of which are commercial leasing with community e-commerce characteristics, while others are using the slogan of "renting excavators and delivering excavators" to sell them through leasing. Overall, the new business model has achieved rapid expansion in scale in some regions and has also driven sales growth of construction machinery and equipment.
In addition, according to research conducted by reporters, agents in the construction machinery industry are currently rushing to stock up, which has also driven sales growth. Industry practitioners generally hold an optimistic attitude towards the trend in 2025. Driven by confidence and various factors, the stocking volume of construction machinery industry agents this year is higher than in previous years.