Yang Jiankun, Deputy Director of the Advanced Manufacturing and Automation Division of the High-Tech Department of the Ministry of Science and Technology; Wen Shunru, Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Department of the China Machinery Industry Federation; Su Zimeng, Vice President and Secretary-General of the China Construction Machinery Association; Zheng Shanglong, President of the Tianjin Research Institute of Construction Machinery; Chu Changxiang, Deputy Director of the National Engineering Research Center for Earthmoving Machinery; leaders from enterprises such as XCMG, Zoomlion, Sany, and LiuGong; as well as heads of some government bodies, associations, and institutions, jointly discussed the market demand and key technological development directions of the construction machinery industry during the “13th Five-Year Plan” period, providing an important basis for formulating the industry’s science and technology development plan and determining science and technology support projects.

       In his speech entitled “Development Situation and Trend Judgment of the Construction Machinery Industry”, Su Zimeng, Vice President and Secretary-General of the China Construction Machinery Association, gave an overview of the construction machinery industry. By reviewing the industry’s five different development stages—exploration, entrepreneurship, rapid development, high-speed development, and transformation and upgrading—he comprehensively summarized and highly appraised the main achievements made over more than 60 years of industry development from eight aspects: the industry’s total scale ranking first in the world; significantly improved production concentration; meeting the application needs of key national fields; achieving practical results in independent innovation and technological progress; continuous improvement in channel capacity building; enhanced global service capabilities; achieving good social and economic benefits; and withstanding two major market tests since the international financial crisis.

       Su Zimeng pointed out that after decades of effort, China’s construction machinery industry has become an advantageous industry in the national equipment manufacturing sector. The industry has achieved practical results in independent innovation and technological progress, and its innovation system and informatization construction have reached a relatively high level; technological innovation achievements are abundant; high-end technical equipment is constantly emerging; progress has been made in the research and development and production of key components; awards are numerous, and the number of patents has reached a historic high.

       According to incomplete statistics, from 1985 to 2011, host enterprises in China’s construction machinery industry had a total of 95,871 patents, of which 14,461 invention patent applications, 28,532 utility model patents, 5,741 granted invention patents, and 1,065 design patents were obtained after screening. R&D investment by host enterprises rose steadily, from 2,925.567 million yuan in 2007 to 10,404.58 million yuan in 2011. Among them, the new technology R&D expenses allocated by some enterprises even accounted for more than 5% of total sales. It is understood that the number of enterprise R&D personnel also increased from 13,613 in 2007, accounting for 6.82% of employees, to 38,716 in 2011, accounting for 12.66%.

       Facing rapidly changing new technologies and new products, and facing international competition, there is still a long way to go for the construction machinery industry to move from a major manufacturing country to a strong manufacturing country. In areas such as cultivating enterprise innovation capabilities, solving the bottleneck of domestic production of key core components, building public technology service platforms, improving product reliability and durability, and intelligent and green manufacturing, policy guidance and support are urgently needed to encourage construction machinery enterprises to invest boldly and explore actively, so as to promote the construction machinery industry to take the lead in making breakthroughs and achieve the strategic goal of transforming China from a major manufacturing country of construction machinery to a strong manufacturing country.

       In judging the future development trend of the industry, Su Zimeng believes that the current development momentum of the construction machinery industry is steady. From statistical data, overall sales volume and operating revenue show negative growth, but this is by no means a decline of the industry; rather, it is a painful period in the process from rapid growth to stable growth. Although it is difficult for the industry to return to the high-speed growth level before 2011, drastic fluctuations will rarely occur. In the future, the pull of the country’s stable growth policies will gradually become apparent, and the overall situation of the industry remains promising, showing a trend of stable and sustainable development. In the long run, China’s construction machinery industry is in its growth stage and is a sunrise industry.

       He proposed that the entire industry should adhere to the policy of “innovation-driven, quality first, structural optimization, and green development”, take reform and opening up as a powerful driving force, take transformation and upgrading as the main task, and accelerate the construction of an advantageous system with strong innovation capabilities, good quality and efficiency, great potential for sustainable development, optimized structure, and a prominent leading position in the international industrial chain.

       As the main task of this meeting involved the formulation of the “13th Five-Year Plan” science and technology development plan, it received great attention and strong support from key enterprises and research institutes in the industry. Zheng Shanglong, President of the Tianjin Research Institute of Construction Machinery; Chu Changxiang, Deputy Director of the National Engineering Research Center for Earthmoving Machinery; Xu Gening, Vice President of Taiyuan University of Science and Technology; and Lu Daming, former President of the Beijing Materials Handling Research Institute, attended the meeting as specially invited guests and delivered thematic speeches. Senior executives in charge of technology from nearly 20 key enterprises in the industry reported on their respective enterprises’ technological development directions and key products to be developed during the “13th Five-Year Plan” period, and put forward suggestions for the formulation of the industry-wide technology development plan and relevant national science and technology support policies.

       Yang Jiankun, Deputy Director of the Advanced Manufacturing and Automation Division of the High-Tech Department of the Ministry of Science and Technology; Li Dongru, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Machinery Industry Federation; and Wen Shunru, Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Department of the China Machinery Industry Federation, carefully listened to the speeches of the representatives and collected written reports from the enterprises. They stated that when compiling the relevant “13th Five-Year Plan” science and technology development plans and determining related projects, they will fully reflect the suggestions and demands of industry associations and enterprises, and promote the realization of the industry’s technological development goals and the completion of major science and technology projects.