In 2024, the Chinese construction machinery market underwent significant transformations in its domestic and export sales structure, demand dynamics, and overall trends. These changes were shaped by a combination of economic factors, policy adjustments, technological advancements, and global market shifts.

The domestic sales of construction machinery in China exhibited a mixed performance in 2024. Amidst the ongoing economic recovery with its twists and turns, the industry experienced a period of deep adjustment, with key economic indicators demonstrating a high-level wavy development trend. Specifically, excavator sales rebounded, primarily driven by the strong demand for small excavators (under 15 tons) in rural construction and re-employment projects, as well as medium to large excavators (above 20 tons) fueled by robust investment in mining industries. However, sales of other tonnage excavators did not show a notable recovery, and the engineering crane market also failed to stabilize and rebound.

Despite the challenges in the domestic market, the export market for Chinese construction machinery maintained a high position throughout 2024. From January to July 2024, although enterprise revenues declined by 1.3% year-on-year, profit margins increased by 8.51%, and selling expenses rose by 11.5%, indicating that enterprises were enhancing profitability and improving asset quality through cost reduction, efficiency enhancement, product structure upgrades, and increased marketing efforts in terminal markets. Export sales of major products such as graders, crawler cranes, road rollers, loaders, and excavators showed positive growth. High-tech products have become the mainstream in exports, with significant increases in various categories such as excavators, bulldozers, pavers, and cranes.

Technological innovation and green development were also prominent trends in 2024. With the continuous advancement of artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and big data technologies, the construction machinery industry accelerated its transformation towards intelligence and automation. Additionally, in response to heightened environmental awareness and the global trend towards green development, enterprises focused on developing more environmentally friendly and energy-efficient products, actively promoting green manufacturing techniques and construction methods to reduce environmental pollution during production processes.

Looking ahead, the outlook for China's construction machinery market remains promising. With the steady advancement of equipment renewal policies, the implementation of real estate easing policies, the gradual materialization of national debt projects, and the continuous expansion of overseas markets, 2025 is likely to witness a rebound in the industry. Furthermore, as China's construction machinery enterprises deepen their international strategic layouts, export markets, especially in emerging regions such as India, Indonesia, and Vietnam, are expected to drive additional growth in demand for construction machinery.

In conclusion, 2024 marked a year of significant changes and challenges for China's construction machinery market. Despite facing headwinds in the domestic market, the industry demonstrated resilience through exports, technological innovation, and green development initiatives. Looking forward, with a combination of favorable policies, ongoing infrastructure investments, and expanding international markets, China's construction machinery industry is poised for further growth and development in the coming years.