Machinery / Industrial Parts & Tools

The development level of construction machinery is an important indicator to measure the degree of industrialization of a country. However, it is a long process to promote the digital and intelligent development of construction machinery.

According to the report of Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed that the focus of economic development should be on the real economy, promote new industrialization, and speed up the construction of a manufacturing power, a quality power, a aerospace power, a transportation power, a network power, and a digital China.

With the decline of China's population dividend, the large-scale of modern construction projects, the increasingly stringent environmental protection requirements, and the improvement of customers' demand for product value, digital, international and green development is becoming an important trend in the construction machinery industry, promoting China to move from a manufacturing power to a manufacturing power, Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

Digital transformation of service in construction machinery industry is an inevitable trend

The competition in the construction machinery market has begun to shift from the new machine sales market to the after-market service. The number of equipment in the market has been very large. It is unrealistic to expect the sales of new equipment to continue to grow. To maintain sustainable development, enterprises must pay attention to the after-market. Among them, the maintenance and service market derived from the equipment sales has great potential.

With the continuous expansion of the aftermarket business of construction machinery, the problem of aftermarket services has become increasingly prominent. Wang Zhongtian, founder of Ruiyun Service Cloud and CEO, said that the after-sales service of domestic construction machinery industry is facing many challenges at present.

First, equipment configuration, customers, operation, maintenance records and other information are not uniformly managed, and care and active services cannot be effectively carried out;

The second is that the information about the departure, arrival and completion of the service personnel cannot be collected in time, the timeliness of the service cannot be monitored, and the intelligent dispatching cannot be based on the personnel load and location;

Third, telephone/WeChat communication of parts demand, complicated equipment, error-prone parts application, untraceable parts delivery and receipt status, and no guarantee of parts timeliness;

Fourth, the fault data during the use of the equipment was not collected timely and accurately, and the fault distribution could not be analyzed, and the product improvement lacked data support;

Fifthly, the post-market service has great value and high profit, but lacks effective channels and means to carry out value-added services and accessories marketing.

In this context, construction machinery enterprises began to consider using digital means to transform the traditional after-sales service management model, expand the service boundary, further explore customer value, and establish a sustainable development model. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

Digital empowerment, smooth industry cycle

In the era of intelligent internet, new technologies represented by 5G, big data and industrial internet are changing rapidly, enabling the high-quality development of construction machinery. Leading construction machinery enterprises have gained greater competitive advantages.

On October 31, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced the list of pilot demonstration projects for the integrated development of new generation information technology and manufacturing industry in 2022. In the direction of "digital pilot" first proposed this year, a total of 8 equipment manufacturing enterprises were selected, including Zoomlion and Sany Heavy Industries.

In 2022, Zoomlion will accelerate the upgrading of production and manufacturing intelligence, and the construction of smart parks, smart factories and smart production lines will be implemented in succession. The relevant person in charge of Zoomlion Heavy Industries introduced to the reporter of China Economic Weekly that the company is vigorously and rapidly promoting industrial intelligent manufacturing and full-business digital transformation, driving innovation in enterprise manufacturing capacity and business model, and fully promoting profound changes in industrial ecology, form and business form, entering a new stage of high-quality development with comprehensive innovation and upgrading.

Since 2018, Sany Heavy Industry has promoted the digital transformation with the determination of "turning over or turning over".

In October 2022, the World Economic Forum (WEF) released a new issue of the list of 11 lighthouse factories in the global manufacturing sector. Five factories, including Sany Heavy Industry's Changsha No. 18 factory, were listed. Among them, Sany Heavy Industry's Changsha No. 18 factory is the second certified lighthouse factory in the global heavy industry after Sany Heavy Industry's Beijing Pile Machinery Factory. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

Yi Xiaogang, director, executive president and chief engineer of Sany Group, said that from 2020 to 2022, Sany's management began to organize all staff to learn robot operation skills, and to organize the study of data architecture. The original intention of Sany's management was to adhere to the implementation of the strategy of "digital intelligence, electrification, and internationalization", unify the understanding of all staff, unify the digital language, layout the new track, and build Sany into a pioneer of intelligent manufacturing Data-driven companies.

In 2022, Shanhe Intelligent's "Research and Development of Intelligent Mine Management and Control System" and "Research and Application of Construction Machinery AGV" were selected as the "industrial Internet" and "artificial intelligence" landmark projects in the "new digital infrastructure" list of Hunan Province in 2022.

He Qinghua, honorary chairman of Shanhe Intelligent, said that this was the third consecutive year that Shanhe Intelligent was successfully selected, fully demonstrating the company's determination and achievements in the direction of digital transformation of engineering equipment.

Digitalization and intelligence are also the choice of the whole industry. According to the positioning of "green, intelligent, lean and flexible", Liugong Excavator Smart Factory will build a regional digital benchmarking factory applying robotics, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and other technologies to realize automation, digitalization, intelligence and intelligent management of production lines and equipment.

Zeng Guang'an, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Liugong, said that intelligence, industrial Internet, big data and other technologies have been widely used in the industry. The maturity of traditional technologies and the research and development of new technologies are one of the reasons for the industry reshuffle and become the core competitiveness of enterprises.

"Digitalization is one of the magic weapons to cross the cycle." According to experts in the construction machinery industry, construction machinery is a typical discrete manufacturing. During the boom of the industry, a large number of people are needed, while during the downturn, the number of people is often required to be controlled, which leads to high manufacturing costs and slow market response. Digital transformation can significantly reduce the cost of personnel, production and logistics for construction machinery enterprises and smooth the industry cycle.

Overseas demand continues to be high, and the market in 2023 is generally optimistic

In late November, the "2022 Top 50 Global Construction Machinery Manufacturers" released by the 2022 Top 50 Global Construction Machinery Summit showed that 12 Chinese manufacturers entered the list, with total sales of 57.881 billion US dollars, accounting for 26.15% of the total list, and continued to remain the first in the world.

According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, the reasons for the high boom of excavator export volume in 2022 include: the high boom of overseas market; The overseas brands and channels of domestic main engine manufacturers have been strengthened, and the penetration rate has increased. The sales structure of excavators in China is changing, and the proportion of exports will increase significantly in 2022. Leading enterprises have laid out overseas markets with remarkable results.

The industrial big data collected by nearly 1000 collection points of the "beacon factory" in Sany Indonesia, spanning more than 3000 kilometers, is interconnected with the domestic Sany global production control center and the "root cloud" platform of the root interconnection in real time, matching the strongest computing power for each process, each model, and even each tool to optimize the production rhythm.

"From industrial software and every data, down to production equipment and every screw, Indonesia's' lighthouse factory 'is fully implemented with reference to Chinese standards." Ding Shifeng, the head of Sany Indonesia's factory, said, "This factory integrates the core achievements of more than 40' lighthouse factories' in China, which is the first overseas systematic output of intelligent manufacturing in China's construction machinery industry."

In 2022, the overseas market of construction machinery will continue to improve, and Shanhe Intelligent will vigorously expand the overseas market, and the international marketing will enter the "acceleration period". Zhu Jianxin, deputy general manager of Shanhe Intelligent, said that with the recognition of the product performance in the international high-end market, and the continuous increase of investment, the implementation of the localization talent strategy, localization assembly and manufacturing strategy, as well as the improvement of the agent, key customers and service parts system, the influence of the global brand of Shanhe Intelligent continued to increase. In the past two years, globalization has made a new start.

Zoomlion's overseas market of construction machinery products has continued to break new highs. In 2022, the company's export revenue increased significantly year on year. Among them, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and other key countries' localization development strategies achieved remarkable results, and the sales performance increased by more than 100% year on year.

In addition, Zoomlion has successively participated in the formulation of more than 500 national and industrial standards, led and participated in the formulation and revision of 19 international standards, and issued 9, including the first international standard of China's construction machinery industry, the first international standard of crane industry, and the first international standard of concrete pumping machinery industry, which has enhanced the authority of China's construction machinery in the international market rulemaking.

In September this year, Wang Zhen, deputy director of the First Equipment Industry Division of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that the development of construction machinery enterprises has realized the transformation from the internationalization of R&D and production to the internationalization of brand and management system. The products are exported to more than 210 countries and regions around the world, and the proportion of export and overseas business income is more than 30%.

Pacific Securities Research believes that in the context of the current domestic real estate policy "three arrows" (i.e. credit, bond and equity financing support) and the continuous implementation of infrastructure investment projects, the prosperity of real estate and infrastructure related to the downstream of construction machinery will be greatly boosted. At the same time, considering the continued high overseas demand, we are optimistic about the demand for follow-up construction machinery.

Emission standard switching, green development becomes a must

Since 2022, the construction machinery industry has practiced the concept of green development, carried out technical transformation with the goal of intelligent manufacturing and green manufacturing, comprehensively promoted new environmental protection coating technology, grabbed the outlet of emission standard switching, and actively promoted the transformation and upgrading of the industry.

Since December 1, excavators, loaders and other non-road mobile machinery have been 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.

In 2022, Zoomlion Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. re-launched the new G-series "National Fourth" excavator. It is reported that Zoomlion Heavy Industries' new G series "National Fourth" excavator adopts green and intelligent customized power chain, adopts a new and upgraded positive flow control system, and carries advanced technologies such as excavation condition self-adaptation, crushing condition self-adjustment, ultra-low idle speed, to achieve high efficiency and energy saving.

In 2022, Zoomlion completed the establishment of four green product group standards, including the Technical Specifications for the Evaluation of Green Design Products Concrete Pump Truck and the Technical Specifications for the Evaluation of Green Design Products Crawler Crane, and the release of green product standards ranked first in the industry.

In 2022, XCMG released more than 30 categories of products in the "National Fourth" standard, including excavators, loaders, etc., and the operation scenarios cover agriculture, ports, mines, foundations, road construction and other fields.

Geng Jiawen, deputy general manager of the Mining Machinery Division of XCMG, said that in terms of the emission limit, the nitrogen oxides in "National IV" were reduced by 50% compared with "National III", and the PM concentration limit was reduced by 90%, which was 1/10 of the original value, and the limit of particulate matter emission per kilowatt-hour was added.

The "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan" for the development of construction machinery industry clearly proposes that the concept of green products should be upgraded in the future, green development should be comprehensively promoted, and green manufacturing and green construction in the process of construction machinery equipment manufacturing should be realized. We will strengthen green supervision and improve the system of laws, regulations and standards for energy conservation and environmental protection.

Relevant personnel from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that in the future, construction machinery enterprises should be guided to actively grasp the integration opportunities brought by the new generation of information technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, big data and the Internet of Things, grasp the development opportunities brought by China's new infrastructure construction, strengthen international exchange and cooperation, explore new technologies, new formats and new models, and accelerate the development of construction machinery towards intelligence, digitalization, greening and networking.