In the blink of an eye, the new year has already entered February. As we bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, looking back at 2013, under the macro environment of tightened national macroeconomic policy and steady economic growth, the construction machinery industry continued the industry downturn of 2012. The industry forged ahead despite the slump, and enterprises kept striving amid difficulties. Over the past year, facing unfavorable conditions, the entire industry worked hard to renew its concepts and transform its growth mode. Against the backdrop of market adjustment and declining growth rates, it vigorously pursued structural adjustment, product quality, and brand enhancement, strengthened internal management, and paid greater attention to the quality of enterprise development, still achieving operating results better than the same period. In particular, the highlights in improving enterprises' own quality, honing their internal strengths, and implementing transformation and upgrading were noteworthy.

In 2013, construction machinery enterprises in the adjustment period consolidated their foundations, pursued high-end products, strengthened management, and optimized their structures, substantially improving product quality and quality standards, and taking solid steps in accelerating transformation and upgrading. A large number of new technologies such as energy conservation and emission reduction, new materials, green manufacturing, informatization, and intelligentization were transplanted and applied to products, and innovation achieved gratifying results.

First, technological inventions bore fruitful results. In 2013, Sany Heavy Industry won the second prize of the 2012 National Technological Invention Award for its 24 authorized invention patents in the project "Ultra-long Boom Technology and Application of Concrete Pump Trucks"; XCMG won the second prize of the 2012 National Science and Technology Progress Award for "XCMG Technological Innovation System Engineering Based on Independent Innovation of Large Construction Machinery"; and Zoomlion won the first prize of China Machinery Industry Science and Technology Award for "Research and Industrialization of Key Technologies for Design and Manufacturing of Ultra-high-strength Steel Booms for Construction Machinery." According to enterprise applications and industry reviews, another 19 construction machinery products and technologies won the China Machinery Industry Science and Technology Award. Among them, seven won second prizes: Shantui's "Key Technologies and Industrialization of High-horsepower Bulldozers," XCMG Heavy Machinery's "RT100 Rough-terrain Tire Crane," Sany Automobile Crane's "Research and Application of Key Technologies for Thousand-ton-class All-terrain Cranes," XCMG Foundation's "XZ5000 Horizontal Directional Drilling Rig," Zoomlion's "Complete Set of Fine Concrete Production Lines and Key Technologies," XCMG Excavator's "XE700C Hydraulic Excavator," and LiuGong's "Research and Industrialization of Key Technologies for Energy-saving and Environmentally Friendly D-series Excavators." Another twelve, including Zoomlion's "Research and Industrialization Development of Key Technologies for Series Tire Cranes," won third prizes.

According to statistics, the number of various patents applied for and approved by enterprises in 2013 hit a record high.

Second, technological research and development made breakthroughs. Amid sluggish market conditions, enterprises paid greater attention to the development of new products and supporting technologies for key components. XCMG's landmark crawler crane with a lifting moment of 88,000 tonne-meters achieved sales and was put into use, achieving the expected results; the 1,600-ton all-terrain crane and the fourth-generation intelligent complete set of road construction and maintenance machinery reached the international leading level; major progress was also made in the development of core components such as high-end hydraulic parts, new electronically controlled transmissions, and intelligent control systems, as well as a batch of upgraded complete machines.

Zoomlion's 101-meter carbon fiber boom pump truck was put into use, the world's first continuous-grading concrete mixing plant was completed and put into production, and high-end equipment development achieved success, including the domestically largest and highest-tonnage 8m3 single-discharge concrete mixer, the world's tallest 113-meter elevating platform fire truck, the 100-ton four-axle all-wheel-steering rough-terrain tire crane, and the seven-section-boom five-axle 300-ton-class all-terrain crane.

Sany Group launched the world's first A8 series wet-mixed mortar complete equipment, the C8 series concrete pump trucks integrating Chinese and German technological achievements, and the V8 urban pioneer series small concrete complete equipment suited to rural markets. Its hydraulic excavators not only ranked first in domestic sales for consecutive periods but also introduced the all-new C9 series hydraulic excavators.

LiuGong released the efficient, energy-saving, environmentally friendly, and comfortable E-series excavators, as well as the energy-saving and environmentally friendly CLG856 natural gas loader and the CLG335A skid-steer loader designed for special desert working conditions. In terms of supporting components, it successfully developed a new drive axle and a new engine specially matched for medium-horsepower loaders, enhancing its competitiveness in the field of core supporting components.

A large number of main machine enterprises, including Shandong Lingong, Shantui, Anhui Heli, Hangcha Group, Xiamen XGMA, Lonking, Foton Lovol, Shanzhong Construction Machinery, Sunward, Sinomach Heavy Industry, North Hauler, Chenggong, Chengdu Xinzhu, Shaanxi Construction Machinery, Xi'an Road Construction Machinery, Jingong, Jingcheng Heavy Industry, and Ketai Heavy Industry, as well as a number of supporting and attachment manufacturers such as Hengli Hydraulic, Fangyuan Bearing, Jingtian Hydraulic, Shandong Changlin, Weichai, and Yuchai, successively launched new products adapted to market demand.

Third, new achievements were made in energy conservation and environmental protection. On the one hand, key backbone enterprises increased investment to adapt to changes in demand structure and the requirements of industry transformation and upgrading; on the other hand, some construction machinery enterprises shifted from simply pursuing scale and mass repetitive production of low-end, general-purpose products to green, environmentally friendly, energy-saving, and material-saving new products, achieving new results in the development of energy-saving and environmentally friendly products. Enterprises such as LiuGong, XCMG, Sany, CSR, Shantui, Anhui Heli, XGMA, Foton Loxa, and Shandong Fangyuan successively developed a new generation of construction machinery products using clean energy. At the same time, a group of backbone enterprises leveraged their strong R&D advantages to innovatively develop energy-saving and emission-reduction products, including lightweight ones, becoming pioneers in leading the construction machinery industry in developing energy-saving and environmentally friendly construction machinery products. 

In addition, progress was made in the "integration of informatization and industrialization." At the "Conference on Promoting Key Work of the Special Action Plan for Deep Integration of Informatization and Industrialization" held by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in Beijing, XCMG, Zoomlion, Foton Lovol, Anhui Heli, LiuGong, Sany Heavy Industry, and CRCC Heavy Industry won the honor of 2013 National-level Deep Integration of Informatization and Industrialization Demonstration Enterprises.

In the new year, although the state is highlighting urban infrastructure construction, especially increasing railway construction efforts—for which Premier Li Keqiang also actively promoted to visited countries during his trips, implementing "high-speed rail diplomacy"—the tone of the Central Political Bureau meeting on macro policy remains one of seeking quality and stability, indicating that the macro environment for the construction machinery industry is still not optimistic. This requires construction machinery enterprises not to be complacent about their noteworthy achievements, but to further enhance their sense of crisis, intensify transformation and upgrading, continue to carry forward the innovative drive to overcome difficulties under downward pressure on the industry, accelerate the pace of internationalization, and continuously improve international competitiveness, thereby making full preparations for the entire Chinese construction machinery industry to embrace 2014 and meet new challenges.

Editor in charge: Wu Yue