Recovery fuels excavator sales in China

Source: Xinhua | 2017-06-13

SALES of excavators in China surged 106 percent last month from a year ago and their annual sales continued to grow over the past nine months amid demand from the infrastructure and property sectors, according to industry data yesterday.

More than 11,280 excavators were sold in China in May and 21 of the 26 main brands posted sales growth — pointing to a full-scale industry recovery following sales that more than doubled from a year ago, 21-sun.com, a domestic heavy machinery consultancy, said.

China enjoyed annual sales growth of above 50 percent over the past nine months, the consultancy said.

The domestic market was the main contributor to the growth, with only 6.9 percent of the excavators sold being exported last month.

Wang Huajun, analyst at Zhongtai Securities, said rising demand in the infrastructure and property markets have rallied the heavy machinery sector, led by excavators.

Investment in China’s infrastructure totaled 3 trillion yuan (US$441 billion) over the first four months, up 23.3 percent from the same period a year ago, said the National Bureau of Statistics. Investment in the property sector grew 9.3 percent annually to 2.8 trillion yuan in the same period, the bureau added.