In the first half of January 2026, orders in the construction machinery industry remained stable, and the market has clear expectations for the peak sales season after the Spring Festival.
At the same time, leading manufacturers such as Xugong Machinery, Sany Heavy Industry, Zoomlion, and Liugong will all accelerate the deployment of production capacity in overseas markets as their core tasks next year.
Many people in the construction machinery industry said that benefiting from the increasing demand for infrastructure such as cycle replacement, electrification upgrades, and new rural construction, the domestic earthmoving market is expected to continue to improve. Sales of core products, including loaders and excavators, may be expected to achieve double-digit growth.
It is reported that demand in different regions of overseas markets has diverged. Emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa have strong demand for infrastructure, and countries co-constructed by the “Belt and Road” have become major incremental markets.
The peak sales season entered after the Spring Festival. In December last year, excavator sales were not weak in the off-season.
Public information shows that 23,095 excavators of various types were sold that month, a year-on-year increase of 19.2%.
Among them, domestic sales were 10,331 units, a year-on-year increase of 10.9%; exports were 12,764 units, a year-on-year increase of 26.9%.
In 2025, a total of 235,257 excavators will be sold nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 17%.
In 2026, in view of the changes in supply and demand in the domestic construction machinery market, some OEMs said that at present, the company’s product sales in mid-to-early January have not changed significantly compared with the same period last year. It is expected that after the Spring Festival in February, as engineering projects in various places resume work and production, the industry will officially enter the traditional sales season.
Since 2025, the upward cycle of domestic construction machinery has begun. The demand for equipment updates has superimposed on construction progress, and the sales of excavators have increased. This will gradually drive non-dig products to continue last year’s momentum and continue to maintain positive growth.
As for the factors that contribute to the overall recovery of the trenchless sector in the domestic market, Zoomlion said in an institutional survey that in addition to the structural recovery of downstream demand, the entry of existing equipment into a centralized replacement cycle is another main factor.
The last round of construction machinery inventory equipment sold from 2018 to 2021 is being updated one after another. It is expected that the replacement of these products will continue to release incremental increases in the next five years.
In addition, with the accelerated iteration of technology upgrade products, the penetration rate of electrification in the concrete sector has increased rapidly. Overall, the recovery trend of trenchless products is clear, and the domestic market is expected to maintain a stable and upward trend this year.
However, Wen Zhigang, an expert in construction machinery leasing and operations management, believes that the current domestic excavator market concentration is steadily increasing, and leading companies continue to seize market share by virtue of their technology and channel advantages. Even if industry sales rebound after bottoming out, it will still be difficult to quickly digest excess production capacity in the industry.
In addition to the leading camp manufacturers, other small and medium-sized manufacturers and channel vendors are still facing pressure from price competition.
This view has also been confirmed by a person from a leading construction machinery manufacturer, who revealed that the current capacity utilization rate of domestic OEMs is not high, remaining at about 60%, and there is still considerable room for improvement.
After the Spring Festival, the traditional sales peak season will usher in. The largest OEMs can appropriately increase their net profit margins by virtue of their scale advantages, further widening the gap with small and medium-sized manufacturers.
The construction machinery product import and export express released by the China Construction Machinery Industry Association on January 20 shows that my country’s construction machinery import and export trade volume will total US$62.743 billion in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 13.2%.
Among them, the import value was US$2.575 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 0.63%; the export value was US$60.169 billion, a year-on-year increase of 13.8%.
In mid-to-early January, domestic construction machinery companies have received large overseas orders, and high-end mining equipment and electrified models have become new highlights in exports.
Among them, XCMG Machinery’s XDE260 mining dump truck has been delivered in batches to South Africa’s leading mining company. This model has broken the monopoly of international brands in the local high-end mining equipment market with its advantages such as strong heavy-duty performance, energy saving and environmental protection. Shandong SDLG’s electric loaders and excavators have been successfully exported to the European market, meeting the needs of local carbon neutrality policies and gaining recognition from overseas customers.
In this context, leading companies such as Sany Heavy Industry and Zoomlion will continue the resource tilt strategy in 2025. In 2026, they will still accelerate the construction of overseas factories, improve the supply chain, and transform from “products overseas” to “industry overseas”, and their overseas share is expected to continue to increase.
Relevant people from Zoomlion said that the company’s overseas manufacturing base has achieved full product category coverage, and continues to expand market outlets in Europe, Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia and other markets.
The company has built overseas local factories in Germany, Italy, Brazil, India, Hungary, Turkey and other places, and combined with the direct sales network to achieve “fast delivery + customized transformation”.
It is worth noting that the 2026 business plan announced by Liugong shows that the company’s budgeted operating income in 2026 is 37.5 billion yuan (the budgeted operating income in 2025 is 34.6 billion yuan), and the net sales profit margin increased by more than 0.5 percentage points.
Sources from the company’s securities department said that the company’s current nine major overseas operating regions, including North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Indonesia, have a relatively balanced revenue share. This year, the company will continue to increase investment in overseas market resources. The mining business is expected to experience recovery growth from 2026. The company will build the mining business into the third core business after loaders and excavators to further enrich the income structure.
