For the construction machinery industry, 2013 was an extraordinary year. At the start of the year, the industry from top to bottom held high hopes that after the 2012 trough, 2013 would bring a recovery. Things turned out contrary to expectations, and the continued downturn cast a further shadow over the industry. It was not until the fourth quarter of this year that there seemed to be a slight turn for the better.

Yet no matter how difficult it was or how great the price paid, the industry finally pulled through. It even achieved slightly better results than in 2012, which was truly hard-won. Despite the ups and downs of the year, industry media still selected the Top 10 Newsmakers of the 2013 Construction Machinery Industry. From these ten newsmakers, the reporter of China Deep Foundation Engineering seemed to glimpse two sides of the industry and was reminded of its future.

In a certain sense, the Top 10 Newsmakers of the 2013 Construction Machinery Industry reflect the current state of the industry. An overview of these ten newsmakers can be summed up in four words: glory, moral failing, lack of magnanimity, and darkness.

By glory, we mean entrepreneurs such as Liang Wengen, Chairman of Sany Heavy Industry; Wang Min, Chairman of XCMG Group; Zhan Chunxin, Chairman of Zoomlion; and Chen Qihua, Chairman of Caterpillar China. These entrepreneurs devote themselves to their businesses and are widely recognized and respected in the industry for their outstanding achievements.

For example, when CCTV's Xinwen Lianbo launched a series of interviews with figures from the non-public economy, Liang Wengen received an exclusive interview with CCTV. He said: “We must use extremely high product quality and service to change the world's image of Chinese products, and turn 'Made in China' into 'Created in China'—that is, to gain worldwide recognition. Therefore, we must make our internationalization Sany's third venture.”

The same is true of Wang Min, Zhan Chunxin, and Chen Qihua, who are renowned corporate leaders in the industry. For his outstanding performance, Wang Min won the “National Outstanding Figure in Advanced Productivity Award” at the “8th National Advanced Productivity Theory and Practice Achievement Awards” and was also awarded the title of “Outstanding Entrepreneur of Jiangsu Province” by Jiangsu Province. At the beginning of the year, Zhan Chunxin received the only “China Outstanding Quality Person Award” in the construction machinery industry. That these entrepreneurs became the industry's newsmakers of the year is glory itself. It is precisely these persistent, resilient industry elites who continue to lead and create the brilliance of the construction machinery industry.

By moral failing, we mainly mean people like Chen Yongzhou. On October 19, 2013, New Express reporter Chen Yongzhou was criminally detained by Changsha police on suspicion of “damaging corporate goodwill.” Investigation by public security authorities found that the New Express reporter Chen Yongzhou, at the instigation of others, published a large number of false reports targeting Zoomlion from September 2012 to August 2013 without verification, repeatedly accepted “remuneration” provided by others, and seriously damaged Zoomlion's reputation, causing heavy losses to numerous shareholders. Whether or not Chen Yongzhou was instigated by others to take bribes and smear Zoomlion, his conduct is the kind of morally deficient behavior most taboo for media professionals and has caused major harm to the industry.

By lack of magnanimity, we mean a lack of generosity and of mutual understanding and tolerance among peers. This mainly refers to the war of words among executives of Sany Heavy Industry and Zoomlion, and even with relevant parties. Working in the same trench and eating from the same boat, why make things difficult for each other? Their sparring even escalated to personal attacks, which is truly inappropriate. Competition within the industry is normal; the key is how to view and respond to it. Malicious verbal battles not only fail to solve problems but also intensify conflicts. Executives are already extremely busy; being insufficiently tolerant because of competitive relations in the industry—whether chairman, president, or assistant to the chairman—highlights not capability but pettiness and a lack of magnanimity. In the end, not only do both sides suffer, but the industry itself is wounded.

By darkness, we specifically mean U.S. President Barack Obama. This year, the lawsuit filed by a Sany Group affiliate against U.S. President Barack Obama attracted considerable industry attention. On February 22, 2013, a U.S. court decided to formally accept the case of Ralls Corporation suing U.S. President Barack Obama, but dismissed some of the claims. July 11, 2013, was the date of Sany Heavy Industry's appeal against U.S. President Barack Obama. Coincidentally, on that very day, the U.S. International Trade Commission announced the launch of a Section 337 investigation into crawler crane products manufactured by Sany Heavy Industry. On October 9, 2013, a judge at a Washington court dismissed the lawsuit filed by Ralls Corporation, the U.S. affiliate of China's Sany Group, against U.S. President Barack Obama. Using power to sanction a private Chinese enterprise is enough to make the world laugh at the dark mentality of Obama as the president of a superpower, and it also reflects the obstacles that political interference brings to the internationalization of construction machinery.

In short, the Top 10 Newsmakers of the 2013 Construction Machinery Industry became newsmakers for different reasons, but they are indeed genuine newsmakers of the year. These ten newsmakers reflect the difficulties of the construction machinery industry moving forward in an era of overcapacity. That is: it is precisely the dedication of industry elites that has produced leading enterprises and thus boosted the industry's development; while some selfish people who disregard professional ethics not only fail to exert positive energy but instead disrupt and severely damage the industry; at the same time, mutual denigration and infighting among corporate executives have led to vicious competition in the industry and harmed a fair and just industry order. As for the phenomenon of U.S. President Barack Obama, it fully demonstrates that construction machinery is unjustly constrained by political power, thus reflecting the difficulty of the internationalization path of China's construction machinery. It can be seen that from the Top 10 Newsmakers of the 2013 Construction Machinery Industry, one can perceive the difficult journey shaped by the extremely delicate and intricate relationships in today's construction machinery development.

Editor: Wu Yue