City embraces surge in construction machinery sector

In recent years, China's engineering equipment, represented by construction machinery, has entered the world market. The engineering machinery products made in China have been sold to more than 200 countries and regions, especially in countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.

The industrial scale of construction machinery in Changsha city of Hunan province exceeded 200 billion yuan ($28.75 billion) in 2022, with a profit of approximately 10 billion yuan, ranking first among provinces and cities in China for several years. The city has become one of the world's three largest construction machinery industry clusters with five of the world's top 50 construction machinery companies: Sany Heavy Industry, Zoomlion Heavy Industry, Sunward Intelligent Equipment, China Railway Construction Heavy Industry Corp and Sinoboom.

The international market has become an important breakthrough for Changsha's engineering machinery enterprises to achieve growth due to participation in a growing number of engineering projects in countries and regions involved in the BRI.

In 2022, the import and export volume of Changsha's engineering machinery industrial cluster totaled 45 billion yuan, an increase of 50 percent year-on-year, with leading products exported to more than 180 countries and regions.

Industry insiders said that over the past few years, engineering machinery companies have improved the service systems of overseas manufacturing, assembly, maintenance, spare parts and training to achieve the transformation from exporting single machines to selling in batches and complete sets.

From the Qatar World Cup stadiums to the Ciel Tower, Changsha's engineering machinery has shown its strength at many major B&R construction sites.

In 2022, the Qatar World Cup attracted the attention of countless football fans. Nearly 100 types of equipment from Sany participated in the construction of all eight stadiums. Given that 90 percent of Qatar's land is covered by rocks and deserts, the hot climate posed a severe test for construction work on the stadiums.

"We have made targeted improvements to relevant equipment after conducting centralized research and repeated experiments to meet the needs of working in high temperatures that could reach up to 50 degrees Celsius or even 60 C," said a representative of Sany. They made improvements such as strengthening the chassis and air conditioning of the equipment exported to the Middle East and using a 5-level air filter to improve its anti-sand and anti-wind performance.

After the project was completed, the Qatari clients were highly satisfied, saying that Chinese products were very reliable.

By relying on products and equipment that can meet local needs and all-weather services, Chinese engineering machinery products have continuously expanded their international markets.

In the Marina area of Dubai, UAE, Zoomlion's L250-20 large-tonnage arm tower crane assisted in the construction of the Ciel Tower, the world's tallest hotel. The project covers an area of about 102,000 square meters and includes 1,100 rooms, a 320-meter-high outdoor swimming pool, a 360-meter-high aerial restaurant, and a 5-level-high atrium sky garden.

In recent years, Changsha's related enterprises in engineering machinery have become increasingly confident in exploring overseas markets.

"Sany's concrete machinery orders have been scheduled until June," said a Sany spokesperson, adding that this year's overseas orders have surged with the number increasing by more than 30 percent year-on-year.

Sinoboom is maintaining strong growth momentum with its export sales revenue in the first quarter increasing by 84 percent year-on-year.

In 2020, Sinoboom was listed among the world's top 50 construction machinery companies. It has made great strides in expanding overseas markets. In May 2022, its Poland plant was completed and achieved mass production with an annual capacity of up to 20,000 units.

Now, Sinoboom has built one manufacturing base, five overseas subsidiaries and more than 60 overseas service centers. It is expected to achieve an output value of 5 billion yuan by 2023.

Liu Guoliang, founder of Sinoboom, is full of confidence in the overseas markets: "In the future, with a strong demand for product iteration and replacement in high-end markets in Europe and the United States, expansion of segmented markets around the world and the introduction to new applications and technologies in China, the global high-end machinery industry will surely maintain steady and sustained growth."

While engineering machinery enterprises are making bold strides overseas, the local government is also creating suitable conditions for enterprises to go global.

Last year, the Changsha Area of the China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone pioneered systemic innovation achievements in the country and launched a reform of secondhand engineering equipment exports, helping enterprises to go global.

On March 10, 216 pieces of secondhand engineering machinery equipment made in Hunan were exported from Changsha and shipped through ports including Shanghai, Taicang and Tianjin to regions such as Southeast Asia, Africa, Central Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, Europe and America.

This batch of exported equipment covered 12 categories such as rotary drilling rigs, excavators and pump trucks with a total value of 317 million yuan.