Machinery / Industrial Parts & Tools

According to the Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report, since December 1, the non road mobile machinery such as excavators and loaders has switched from the "national third" emission standard to the "national fourth" emission standard, and green development has become a must for the construction machinery industry.

Since 2022, enterprises in the construction machinery industry have taken precautions to seize the opportunity to switch emission standards, actively promoted transformation and upgrading, and made remarkable achievements in high-end and major equipment development, electrification and intelligent breakthroughs, as well as in improving international competitiveness.

Promote technological innovation

On July 26, 2022, the world's largest rotary drilling rig XR1600E was released in the new intelligent manufacturing base of XCMG Basic Engineering Machinery Co., Ltd. This product has successfully solved the construction problems of super large diameter and super deep piles in the complex environment of super large bridge projects, and will promote the efficient construction of "super projects", Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

The relevant person in charge of XCMG Foundation said that after years of technical accumulation, the company has fully mastered the core technology in the field of infrastructure construction equipment, and has the most comprehensive super tonnage rotary drilling rig in the industry, and has achieved mass sales and application.

Since entering 2022, China's construction machinery enterprises have always implemented the innovation driven development strategy, strengthened the close integration of production, teaching, research and application, put a batch of internationally advanced and leading engineering equipment on the market, and promoted and applied a batch of scientific research achievements and major technical equipment, which has better met the needs of national economic construction and major projects.

"Continuously promote innovation, and China's construction machinery has been blooming and bearing fruit in recent two years." Lv Ying, deputy secretary-general of China Construction Machinery Industry Association, told reporters that not only a batch of high-end construction machinery and major technical equipment had been developed and applied, but also many equipment had achieved major breakthroughs in limiting parameters.

Lv Ying introduced that, for example, an ultra small shield machine with a diameter of less than 3 meters has been successfully developed. Such a small volume needs to be equipped with many functional parts. Many problems need to be solved in terms of the integration of supporting parts and the lightweight of mechanism parts. For another example, the curb weight of truck cranes used to be about 60 tons, but now some of them have dropped to less than 50 tons, which can directly pass through some bridges and roads, and is expected to be used in more scenarios.

Behind the improvement of overall performance and parameters is the improvement of the whole construction machinery industry chain. A number of domestic large backbone complete machine enterprises have continuously accelerated the localization process of parts and components, actively carried out high-end parts and components research and development, manufacturing, test and detection, and the localization rate of high-end parts and components has continued to increase. New progress has been made in the research and development of some key parts and components. A number of core component manufacturers have accelerated their deep integration with the industrial chain of complete machine enterprises. Some have moved from producing alternative products to the host supporting market, and some have entered the supporting supply system of high-end brand construction machinery manufacturers, achieving industrial upgrading.

For the high-end exploration of the whole industry of construction machinery, CAS Member and Professor Youwei of Nanjing University said at the International Summit Forum on Innovation and Frontier Technology of China (Xuzhou) Construction Machinery Industry that the biggest difficulty of high-end construction machinery and its key components is the new materials that adapt to them. The upstream and downstream industrial chains of construction machinery should be innovated cooperatively to accelerate the deep integration of "politics, industry, education, research, finance, and use" of new material industry, and to realize the independent control of key core technologies and high-end core components as soon as possible.

Accelerate intelligent transformation

According to the observation report of Huacheng Import and Export Data, recently, after preliminary trial, Sany International officially delivered 15 "Electric Pioneer" pure electric wide body dump trucks to Talonson Mining in Gansu Province. At the performance presentation meeting held at the end of the first quarter of 2022, the relevant responsible person of Sany International said that in 2021, the sales proportion of the company's intelligent and electric products in all products has increased to about 15%. In the future, on the premise that electric technology can fully meet different working conditions, the company will not develop fuel version products.

In the context of low carbon development, the green development of construction machinery industry has made outstanding achievements. According to the data of Tianyan Survey, in the past five years, the compound growth rate of the number of patent applications related to electric construction machinery has reached 30%. At present, the penetration rate of electric construction machinery in China is relatively low. As the lithium battery industry chain continues to mature, the battery cost will further decline, and the penetration rate of electric construction machinery will rapidly increase in the next three years.

Lv Ying said that the price of new energy products of construction machinery is relatively high at present, on the one hand, because the volume is not up, on the other hand, the industrial chain is not mature enough. At present, leading enterprises in the industry are all doing new energy products with similar technical routes. In the end, who can do it depends on the industrial chain integration capability. In the future, with the increase of application scenarios, the development space of new energy products is considerable.

According to China Construction Machinery Industry Association, at present, the proportion of electric drive products in forklift trucks has risen from 27.7% to 60%; The electric rate of lifting platform has exceeded 90%; Electric or hybrid cranes and bulldozers have achieved small batch production; New breakthroughs have also been made in the electrification of other construction machinery.

At the same time, the construction machinery industry is making an all-out effort on intelligence. On October 31, 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced the pilot demonstration list of the integration development of new generation information technology and manufacturing industry in 2022. With its innovative practice and leading strength in the transformation of digital intelligence, Sany Group was successfully selected as one of the first "digital pilot" enterprises. Also in October, the World Economic Forum (WEF) released a new list of 11 lighthouse factories in the global manufacturing industry, and Sany Heavy Industry's No. 18 factory in Changsha was on the list. Factory 18 is the second lighthouse factory certified in the global heavy industry after Sany Heavy Industry Beijing Piling Machine Factory.

Yi Xiaogang, the director, executive president and chief engineer of Sany Group, revealed that before and after the intelligent manufacturing transformation of the Lighthouse Factory, the number of workers on the production line of Changsha No. 18 Factory decreased by nearly two thirds, but the capacity doubled, from the original production of more than 400 devices per month to the capacity of more than 900. The benefits brought by intelligent manufacturing were significantly improved. At present, Sany Group is accelerating the transformation of digital intelligence. The company has put forward the "three three" strategy and hopes to achieve a sales volume of 300 billion yuan with 3000 workers and 30000 engineers in the future.

Deeply cultivate the international market

With the continuous improvement of product competitiveness, more and more construction machinery products go abroad and become best sellers in the international market.

According to the observation report of Huacheng's import and export data, 220797 excavators were sold from January to October 2022, a year-on-year decrease of 26%; Among them, 131340 were domestic, down 46.4% year on year; 89457 sets were exported, with a year-on-year growth of 67.3%. Since April 2021, the sales volume of domestic excavators has declined year on year in a single month, while the export has maintained a rapid growth.

"The rapid growth of exports reflects the gradual enhancement of China's excavator overseas competitiveness." Said the relevant person in charge of Sany Heavy Industry.

China's construction machinery industry enterprises have actively implemented the international development strategy, and their product technology level and international market reputation have significantly improved. Up to now, the overseas business of industrial enterprises has covered more than 170 countries and regions, and overseas R&D, manufacturing, marketing, services, human resources, etc. have been further improved and improved, becoming a strong support for expanding international markets and establishing international brands.

Lv Ying said that the rapid growth of exports is the result of the comprehensive effect of many factors such as the improvement of the competitiveness and service capacity of construction machinery enterprises, the expansion of business coverage, and the deepening of user penetration. At present, there is still a lot of space to be explored in the international market, including the renewal of existing market stocks, as well as new applications brought about by product upgrading and process innovation.

"Many enterprises have done well in their international layout, and each has its own advantages and characteristics in marketing services." Lv Ying suggested that in the future, more efforts should be made in the industry. Enterprises should cooperate with each other, support each other overseas, unblock all links of the industrial chain, and jointly maintain a good competitive environment. Fundamentally, we should continue to deepen the supply side structural reform and improve more details. In the future, with the improvement of R&D and manufacturing and industrial chain coordination, Chinese enterprises will be able to do better in the international market, Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation reported.

Looking forward to 2023, what is the prospect of the construction machinery industry? Su Zimeng, president of China Construction Machinery Industry Association, said that the three departments recently jointly issued the Notice on Strengthening the Recovery and Strengthening the Industrial Economy, which provides new policy guarantees for consolidating the recovery and the positive trend of the construction machinery industry. In 2022, under the influence of overcoming multiple adverse factors, China's economy is expected to achieve steady growth, which will have a positive impact on next year's economic development. Guided by the policy orientation of stabilizing expectations and employment, China's investment in infrastructure construction and manufacturing will grow steadily. In addition, the steady growth measures in various regions and fields will continue to be implemented, and China's construction machinery exports will continue to maintain strong resilience. It is expected that the industry will continue to show a stable operating trend in 2023.