“The upward turning point for the construction machinery industry will come in the next 10 to 20 years, when the industry will enter a mature phase of endogenous growth.” Recently, a 2013 four wheels and one track industry integration marketing exchange conference themed “Integrating Information, Refined Marketing” was held in Quanzhou. Construction machinery OEMs from across the country and component manufacturers from Quanzhou held in-depth discussions on the current status, development, and future trends of the construction machinery industry.

　　Urbanization is the primary driving force

　　It is understood that the “four wheels and one track” are the undercarriage components of crawler-type construction machinery. The four wheels are the drive wheel, guide wheel, support roller, and carrier roller, and the one track is the crawler track. They directly affect the working performance and travel performance of crawler-type construction machinery. The undercarriage components, led by the four wheels and one track, account for about a quarter of the manufacturing cost of construction machinery. In recent years, with the acceleration of urbanization, the demand for construction machinery in urban housing construction, road construction, water conservancy construction, and other areas has been increasing. In particular, after the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, the pace of urbanization has accelerated, which has also expanded market space for construction machinery products such as the four wheels and one track.

　　“Urbanization is a primary driving force for the development of the construction machinery industry,” said Wang Shuangming, Data Research Director of China Construction Machinery Business Network. The reason is that urbanization drives demand for infrastructure construction and other areas. In reality, China's urbanization level is already close to 50%.

　　Wang Shuangming believes that construction machinery products will remain in a mid-term acceleration phase in the next 10 to 20 years. After China's urbanization level reaches 70%, the market will enter a mature phase of endogenous growth, and demand for large engineering equip

　　ment will gradually decline. Therefore, the upward turning point for this industry will come in the next 10 to 20 years.

　　“From this perspective, construction machinery products still have great room for development,” Wang Shuangming said.

　　Refined marketing counters industry reshuffling

　　In the construction machinery industry, Quanzhou is known as the “Hometown of Four Wheels and One Track” and has captured most of the market share with advantages in price and variety, “accounting for nearly 70% of the domestic market share,” said Liu An, Deputy General Manager of Quanzhou Hengli Da Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.

　　“The central government's 4 trillion yuan plan in 2008 gave the construction machinery industry a development opportunity. The industry began to expand production capacity, and outsiders rushed in, causing the construction machinery industry to grow wildly like weeds,” Liu An said. After 2011, production capacity became severely excessive, with large inventories piling up, and the industry will face a new round of reshuffling in the future.

　　Faced with this situation, Mao Zhounan, Senior Consultant of the Guangzhou Construction Machinery Parts Industry Association, proposed a refined marketing model. “In recent years, the Quanzhou industry has replaced the diversification of former state-owned enterprises with specialization, that is, a refined marketing model. The products produced by each enterprise are linked together to form a huge industry,” Mao Zhounan said. He also pointed out that Quanzhou is already quite mature in the four wheels and one track industry, but external competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Many people have their eyes on Quanzhou's component products not because they want to buy or act as agents, but because they want to replace them. To prevent being eroded, companies should unite to form large enterprise groups and actively upgrade their products and technologies.

　　“Quanzhou should move away from the current situation of mutual price undercutting and maintaining customers through price, and instead shift to improving prod

　　uct quality and value to win customers,” Mao Zhounan said.

　　Promotion can leverage e-commerce channels

　　“Online marketing is imperative for construction machinery, whether for complete machines or the parts industry,” said Zhang Fei, Manager of the Marketing Company of Sany Heavy Machinery. The company began direct online sales of parts in 2006, and currently the proportion of online sales has increased significantly.

　　“A survey we conducted shows that more than 70% of users choose to go online at home, more than 60% of users go online more than twice a week, and more than 50% of users spend more than two hours online each time,” Wang Shuangming told the enterprises present. Customers who need products have the foundation and habit of going online. They are most concerned about bidding information, followed by equipment information, then industry news and trends, and finally parts supply information.

　　Wang Shuangming believes that the Internet can provide sales leads. Offline, agents or sales personnel face customers directly; online, they communicate with customers in the early stage. Although it is somewhat difficult for complete construction machinery to achieve fully online payment like the retail industry, with the continuous development of e-commerce and the improvement of product standardization, the demand for e-commerce will increase.