As an important part of the equipment manufacturing industry, the construction machinery industry is one of the important industries in the construction of the national economy. It has the characteristics of high technical barriers and high capital demand.
It is closely related to national infrastructure construction investment and social fixed asset investment. Downstream customers are mainly infrastructure construction, real estate construction, mining and mining and other industries, with a certain degree of cyclicality.
According to statistics, construction machinery includes twenty major categories such as shovel transportation machinery, excavating machinery, and concrete machinery.
In 2025, the pace of global economic recovery will diverge, geopolitical games, trade barriers and supply chain restructuring will still bring uncertainty. The global construction machinery industry is at a critical stage of structural adjustment, transformation and upgrading.
However, the demand for global infrastructure construction is highly resilient, the national markets under the Belt and Road Initiative continue to prosper, and energy and mineral development and green and low-carbon transformation are in depth, bringing structural opportunities to the industry.
In 2026, domestic construction machinery will enter the inventory renewal cycle. Equipment with peak sales from 2016 to 2018 will gradually enter the 8-year depreciation cycle, with inventory renewal demand accounting for 60%.
At the same time, large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in operations will be implemented in 2026. The first batch of 93.6 billion yuan of ultra-long-term special government bonds will support the renewal of equipment in the construction field, and tax incentives can be enjoyed for the purchase of electric construction machinery, further boosting demand.
The output value of China’s construction machinery industry will be 1,112.965 billion yuan in 2025, and the total industry output value is expected to reach 1,184.103 billion yuan in 2026.
During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, my country’s construction machinery industry relied on policy support and market-driven efforts in a complex environment, showing a good development trend of stabilizing and rebounding domestic demand, continued strong overseas expansion, continuous optimization of structure, and highlighted innovation momentum. The industry as a whole achieved high-quality development, demonstrating strong resilience and development vitality.
In 2026, the domestic construction machinery market is expected to accelerate its growth. Under the clear guidance of relevant policies, large-scale equipment updates, technological transformation and other policies will continue to deepen, underpinning the industry and injecting certainty.
The advancement of the construction of major national projects represented by the Yaxia Hydropower Station will directly drive demand for large-scale, high-end, green equipment.
At the same time, the trend of electrification and intelligent upgrading driven by the industry’s endogenous factors remains unchanged and is expected to lead a new round of structural growth.
In 2025, my country’s construction machinery industry will show a coordinated development of domestic and foreign sales and an overall steady growth trend. Domestic demand has picked up significantly, the export market continues to play a supporting role, and the overall resilience of the industry is highlighted.
In 2025, my country’s construction machinery import and export trade volume will total US$62.743 billion, 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 the domestic market in 2025, the sales growth of construction machinery will be mainly driven by the equipment update cycle, the large-scale equipment update trade-in policy, the recovery of infrastructure investment and the demand for replacement of existing equipment. Although the traditional real estate industry is still in an adjustment period, areas such as transportation and water conservancy, urban renewal, rural revitalization, mining and new energy infrastructure have become the main demand, providing solid support for the recovery of the industry.
my country’s excavator output in 2025 will be 379,600 units, a year-on-year increase of 26.83% from 2024.
At the same time, the green transformation of the industry is advancing steadily, and electric excavators are gradually entering the market. However, restricted by factors such as scene adaptation and cost, the overall market volume is relatively limited and is mainly concentrated in specific scenarios and pilot projects. Traditional fuel-powered models still occupy the mainstream of the market.
Overall, in 2025, the quality of domestic excavator sales growth will steadily improve, the market structure will continue to be optimized, and the industry will steadily rebound from the bottom of the cycle, move steadily toward high quality, globalization, and greenness, and achieve long-term healthy development.
The current electrification penetration rate of domestic construction machinery is still at a single-digit level, mainly because the electrification technology of high-power, high-energy-consuming equipment such as excavators is still in the critical stage, which has lowered the overall average level.
Among them, the electrification of specific models such as electric loaders is developing rapidly.
In the future, as the electrification penetration rate of domestic construction machinery increases, the demand for battery integration in construction machinery will increase.
It is expected that the compound growth rate of the domestic market will remain at 30% – 35% from 2026 to 2030, and the market size will exceed 120 billion yuan in 2030.
From the supply side, the upstream of the construction machinery industry is mainly raw materials and core components such as steel, iron, hydraulic parts, and engines.
Among them, steel accounts for about 30% of the cost of construction machinery.
The rise and fall of steel and iron prices directly affects the production costs of construction machinery manufacturing companies, and in turn affects the profitability of construction machinery manufacturing companies.
The price of rebar will generally show a downward trend in shock in 2025, and the price will be around 2,800-3,300 yuan/ton. The main reason is that the overall domestic downstream real estate market will be sluggish in 2025, multiple indicators will hit the bottom, and the fundamentals of steel will be oversupplied. The steel price will also be affected by the decline in costs and the overall downward trend.
At the same time, the cost pressure on the main raw materials in the upstream of construction machinery has eased.
The fragmentation of project scale has caused customer demand to shift from asset holding to light asset operation, and leasing will become an important means of circulation of construction machinery.
Policy guidance has further accelerated the maturity and expansion of the leasing market, and the penetration rate of construction machinery and equipment leasing has continued to increase, creating a large demand for construction machinery leasing services.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, national real estate development investment will decrease by 17.2% year-on-year in 2025, the area of newly started construction will decrease by 20.5% year-on-year, and the funds in place of real estate development enterprises will decrease by 13.4% year-on-year, which is narrower than in 2024. The real estate market is still undergoing deep adjustment.
Orders in the domestic tower crane leasing market continue to decrease, and the leasing price index is still hovering at a low level. The leasing industry has suffered from declining demand, lower prices, and difficulties in repayment. The industry consolidation has accelerated, companies are gradually becoming larger-scale, and competition is becoming more idealistic.
