Recently, interim results of listed companies in the machinery industry have been disclosed one after another. The net profits of the "Big Three" — XCMG Machinery, Zoomlion and Sany Heavy Industry — all fell sharply in the first half of the year, seemingly indicating that the winter of the construction machinery industry is not yet over. "China's economic slowdown has reduced industry profitability, but this is not a bad thing for construction machinery. It is exactly a chance for everyone to calm down, sort out the thinking for the next step of development, squeeze out excess, adjust the structure and focus on innovation," Wang Min said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua Energy reporters.

　　Wang Min said that after 30 years of relatively high development, especially more than 10 years of rapid development, the Chinese economy has given the construction machinery industry a certain foundation, scale, volume and level. Now the global economy and the Chinese economy are slowing down, and the industry has been affected, but there has been no large-scale loss. Judging from this year's interim reports, XCMG's profit fell by more than 40%, but it still made a profit of more than 1 billion yuan.

　　In the recently released 2013 China Top 500 Enterprises list, XCMG ranked 119th, up 3 places from last year; in the 2013 China Top 500 Manufacturing Enterprises, XCMG ranked 44th, compared with 55th last year.

　　At present, the construction machinery industry has formed a fully competitive situation. There are thousands of state-owned, private and joint-venture enterprises in total. Highly intense competition has made China's construction machinery industry grow and strengthen, but at the same time, adapting to competition forces enterprises to innovate. Wang Min believes that enterprise innovation is mainly technological innovation. Reliability and advanced nature are problems that the equipment manufacturing industry must solve. Today, making ordinary homogeneous products is no longer profitable. Multinational companies occupy the high-end market and earn big money, while we still lag behind. Therefore, innovation is driven by competition and forced by the desire to live better; not innovating means waiting to die.

　　Wang Min believes that after decades of effort and accumulation, China's construction machinery industry has solved 90% of the problems, but the most critical task is to overcome the last 10%. "This is like the last few hundred meters of climbing Mount Everest. We need to gather greater strength, use more financial resources, more wisdom and more talent to solve the last few hundred meters and the 10% of problems. If this problem is not solved, we will always be constrained by others."

　　Wang Min told reporters that XCMG now has two major strategies: one is the innovation strategy, and the other is the international strategy. The performance of XCMG's main machine products is already no lower than the level of developed countries, but core components still need breakthroughs. To overcome this problem, XCMG has acquired companies in Germany and established R&D centers there, and is cultivating high-end technical talent overseas. "We have goals and paths. This last 10% of problems will be solved by integrating global resources and building a global platform."

　　"To become strong, we must go international. The Chinese market will eventually reach saturation, and we need to compete for existing stock through innovation. The largest stock is still in the hands of multinational companies, and Chinese enterprises must win a share from them."

　　Speaking of the industry's future development trend, Wang Min's face was full of confident smiles. "I am very optimistic about the future. The domestic market in the second half of the year will certainly be better than in the first half and will gradually improve. China's fixed asset investment is still growing at more than 20%, which is not a small number."

　　"Look at the phenomenon: whether on the roads or at construction sites, most of the construction machinery is Chinese. This phenomenon makes me feel very confident. Twenty years ago, when we visited foreign companies, it felt like primary school students looking at university students. Ten years ago, XCMG was unknown in the world, but now it ranks fifth in the world's equipment manufacturing industry."

　　Wang Min said that since starting as an apprentice at the age of 18, he has been in the construction machinery industry for 41 years. What moves him is that there is still a group of people like him working solidly in this industry, doing it for a lifetime. "Manufacturing is not like other industries. It needs a group of people to settle down and do things, to accumulate technology and culture, so that highly reliable products can be manufactured and technological progress can continue. Therefore, to retain high-end talent, enterprise management must also innovate, using incentive mechanisms, humanistic care and corporate culture."

　　Regarding XCMG's development goal, Wang Min pointed out that it will take about five years to enter the global top three in the industry, not only in sales scale but in comprehensive indicators. "We must have the determination and courage to reach the summit and take a place among the world's top three, and once we go up, we will never come down. Caterpillar has held the industry's leading position for decades. I think this is XCMG's goal."