In the first five months of 2026, China’s construction machinery industry has achieved double-digit growth in both domestic and foreign markets, with exports of new energy products soaring 208% year-on-year.
Behind this data is the dual driving force of the steady recovery of domestic demand and the continued deepening of overseas layout. It also marks that the industry is shifting from scale expansion to value output in the process of high-end, intelligent, and green transformation.
The core data is red: both domestic and foreign sales of excavator loaders have increased.
Data from the China Construction Machinery Industry Association shows that from January to May this year, sales of the industry’s two core products were booming across the board.
Cumulative sales of excavators were 126,875 units, a year-on-year increase of 24.7%; cumulative sales of loaders were 67,162 units, a year-on-year increase of 27.3%.
Both domestic sales and international exports of these two types of products have achieved double-digit growth year-on-year.
Judging from monthly data, the growth momentum continued in May.
In May 2026, 24,794 excavators were sold, a year-on-year increase of 36.2%, of which 11,628 were domestic sales and 13,166 were exported.
Exports accounted for 53.1%, becoming the core pillar driving sales.
The loader market also showed simultaneous growth both internally and externally, with export sales accounting for 44.7% in May.
The biggest highlight: the export of new energy engineering machinery is soaring.
Among the overall growth, the performance of new energy engineering machinery is particularly eye-catching and has become a new engine driving growth.
From January to May, a total of 20,819 electric loaders were sold, a year-on-year increase of 90.9%.
Its export volume reached 1,232 units, a year-on-year increase of 208%, showing the strong demand for Chinese green equipment in overseas markets.
Electric excavators have also entered a stage of accelerated penetration.
In the first five months, 121 electric excavators were sold domestically and 101 were exported.
The industry expects that the output and application scope of electric excavators and other products will further expand.
Double drivers: domestic recovery and deep overseas development.
The driving force for growth comes from both internal and external markets.
The domestic market is gradually recovering. The person in charge of the association pointed out that the domestic construction machinery market is gradually recovering.
Analysts believe that the capital disbursement rate in the second quarter improved from the previous quarter, which combined with the low base effect in the same period last year, promoted domestic sales growth.
Overseas layout releases potential, and international market demand is relatively stable. my country’s construction machinery companies have further released sales potential by continuously optimizing and improving their overseas layout.
For example, Sany Group has invested in and built industrial parks and central warehouses in South Africa, with the proportion of local employees being approximately 90%.
Intelligent upgrade: AI application creates economic benefits.
The industry is adhering to the direction of intelligent development, and leading companies have achieved cost reduction and efficiency improvement through technology implementation.
Sany Group will implement more than 700 AI application scenarios in 2025, and the implementation of AI will create economic benefits of more than 200 million yuan for the enterprise.
Among them, the AI maintenance assistant has improved the response rate of overseas troubleshooting, and the AI identification of similar materials in the supply chain has reduced the cost of a single material by tens of millions of yuan.
XCMG has launched the XCMG CONNECT smart service ecological platform to realize full life cycle smart services for global equipment and shift from “selling equipment” to “selling solutions”.
Green practice: zero-carbon solutions and efficiency revolution.
Green transformation extends from products to overall solutions.
LiuGong has released a comprehensive solution for zero-carbon smart mines. Through the integrated system of “equipment + energy + intelligence + services”, mine power costs can be reduced by more than 40%.
Its electric equipment performs stably under extreme working conditions such as high altitude and high temperature, and has been recognized by overseas customers.
In specific construction scenarios, technological innovation also brings efficiency leaps.
The Xi’anshan iron ore project in Liaoning uses the “Jishi” hard rock tunnel boring machine, with a monthly tunneling efficiency of 300 to 400 meters, while the monthly progress of traditional blasting methods is only 60 to 80 meters.
Integrated development: The industrial chain collaborates to overcome difficulties.
The trend of integration is reflected in the deep collaboration between the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain.
Hunan Zhongfang County has established a party committee for the machinery and equipment industry chain through “on-chain party building”, extending the organizational reach to every link of the industry chain, and promoting enterprises to shift from “each looking after their own affairs” to “one game of chess”.
The technical research party group of Wuxin Technology Company has overcome the technical bottleneck of high-speed railway box girder formwork. Its products have been used in more than 170 high-speed railways in China and have been installed on the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway in Indonesia.
This collaborative innovation model has generated direct economic benefits totaling tens of millions of yuan.
Advancing overseas: from product output to ecological output.
China’s construction machinery overseas model is undergoing profound changes, shifting from single product export to localized operation and industrial ecological output.
With deep localization efforts, XCMG has established a three-level service network in Saudi Arabia covering the whole country, and SANY’s revenue in Africa has grown by more than 40%.
Enterprises focus on building localization capabilities to better meet market demand.
“Small size” leverages the big market. The mini excavator from Jining, Shandong Province unexpectedly broke out of the industry through overseas live broadcast, and one evaluation video was played more than 4 million times.
In 2025, the company’s overseas sales will account for 75%.
In terms of technical standard output, Chinese construction machinery has broken the monopoly of European and American high-end markets with its electrified and intelligent products. For example, China’s shield machine has a global market share of more than 70%.
Future Outlook: The penetration rate of new energy will increase significantly.
The China Construction Machinery Industry Association predicts that industry operating income and trade exports will continue to maintain steady growth throughout 2026.
Su Zimeng, president of the association, pointed out that the industry adheres to the development direction of high-end, intelligent, green and integrated development, and its innovation capabilities have been greatly enhanced.
A clearer trend is that the market penetration rate of new energy engineering machinery will increase significantly, and the output quantity and application scope of electric excavators and other products will further expand.
This indicates that with technological innovation and global layout as the two-wheel drive, China’s new construction machinery manufacturing forces will continue to exert influence in the global market.
