Recently, the introduction of the new urbanization plan and the grand convening of the Two Sessions have become a good start for the construction machinery industry in 2014. From the excavator industry market sales data, it can be seen that, based on last year and the year before, the excavator market has recovered to a considerable extent.

 

　　According to statistics from the China Construction Machinery Association, total excavator sales in China in January 2014 were 4,533 units, down nearly 10% year-on-year. It is reported that among domestic brands, Sany Heavy Industry's excavator sales performed particularly prominently, with its sales still ranking first; among foreign brands, Caterpillar performed relatively well, with a somewhat fierce development momentum, achieving a year-on-year increase of 30% and ranking second in absolute volume. Because during the Spring Festival, many manufacturers and construction sites were closed for holidays and work was suspended, purchasing momentum was insufficient; therefore, the excavator sales data cannot lead us to one-sidedly conclude that the excavator market is in recession.

 

　　However, according to the latest industry data, excavator industry sales in February were 9,410 units, up 55.3% year-on-year. Among major domestic brands in February, the excavator market sales of LiuGong, Sunward, Sany and XCMG were 365, 202, 1,385 and 140 units respectively, up 88%, 67%, 32% and 31% year-on-year respectively. In terms of foreign brands, the excavator market sales of Caterpillar, Komatsu, Hitachi and Doosan were 965, 1,154, 865 and 839 units respectively, up 94%, 119%, 74% and 82% year-on-year respectively.

 

　　Cumulative excavator industry sales in January-February 2014 were 13,943 units, up 26.1% year-on-year. From the perspective of product structure, cumulative sales of small excavators in January-February increased 42.3% year-on-year; cumulative sales of large excavators increased 31.5% year-on-year (a sharp decline of 64% in the same period last year); benefiting from the impact of medium- and large-scale infrastructure projects, cumulative sales of medium excavators increased 10.1% year-on-year.

 

　　Industry experts analyzed that in February this year, excavator sales data showed significant growth, mainly because of the low base and the Spring Festival. It is reported that sales in February 2013 were the lowest since 2008, only 29.5% of the peak in 2011, and cumulative sales in January-February 2013 were the lowest since 2010, only 34.9% of the peak in 2011. Due to the sufficiently low base effect, although January-February this year grew 26.1% year-on-year, it still only reached 44.0% of the peak period. After the Spring Festival this year, there were 17 working days for resuming work in February, while last year the Spring Festival was later, and there were only 11 working days for resuming work after the Spring Festival in February. Calculated by effective working days, average daily sales in February last year were 500 units (assuming the 6 working days before the holiday accounted for 10% of total sales), and average daily sales in February this year were 553 units; affected by post-holiday channel stocking to prepare for the March sales peak season, February sales grew significantly year-on-year.

 

　　Experts analyzed that although excavator sales were affected by the timing shift of the Spring Festival, the industry sales data for January-February exceeded expectations; therefore, the overall trend of the excavator industry is improving.