“my country has become a major manufacturing country for construction cranes and is moving towards becoming a manufacturing power; its product manufacturing and sales rank first in the world, and it has the world’s largest construction crane market.” Li Jianyou, chairman of the Construction Crane Branch of the China Construction Machinery Industry Association, said recently.
From the successful development of the first tower crane in 1957, the successful trial production of China’s first independently designed and manufactured “old five-ton” Q51 truck crane in 1963, to the successful delivery of the newly-promoted “world’s first crane” – XCMG Group’s XCA4000 wheeled crane in 2024, and the completion of the erection and installation of the world’s largest tower crane – Zoomlion R20000-720 on the west cable tower of the Shiziyang Bridge, my country’s construction cranes are growing stronger and stronger.
Domestic sales decline, market faces challenges
The construction crane operation rate is insufficient, the crane market inventory remains high, and the intensified market competition has led to difficulties in selling new machines.
According to the latest data from the China Construction Machinery Industry Association, in terms of automobile cranes, 1,384 automobile cranes of various types were sold in December 2024, a year-on-year increase of 5.33%, of which 637 were sold domestically, a year-on-year decrease of 26.5%; and 747 were exported, a year-on-year increase of 67.1%.
In terms of crawler cranes, 229 crawler cranes of various types were sold in December 2024, a year-on-year increase of 10.1%, of which 67 were sold domestically, a year-on-year decrease of 13%; and 162 were exported, a year-on-year increase of 23.7%.
In terms of truck cranes, 1,970 truck cranes of various types were sold in December 2024, a year-on-year increase of 13.3%, of which 1,664 were sold domestically, a year-on-year increase of 21.2%; and 306 were exported, a year-on-year decrease of 16.2%.
In terms of tower cranes, 571 tower cranes of various types were sold in December 2024, a year-on-year decrease of 43.7%, of which 335 were sold domestically, a year-on-year decrease of 62.5%; and 236 were exported, a year-on-year increase of 95%.
Overall, the situation facing the domestic market seems to be more severe. In December 2024, the domestic sales of tower cranes fell the most year-on-year, by 62.5%. Looking at the period from January to December 2024, the domestic sales of truck cranes were 10,511 units, the domestic sales of crawler cranes were 821 units, the domestic sales of truck cranes were 18,864 units, and the domestic sales of tower cranes were 5,450 units. In 2024, the year-on-year decreases of truck cranes and crawler cranes exceeded 20%.
The reason behind this is that, on the one hand, the national operating rate has declined, resulting in a low willingness to purchase equipment. Affected by factors such as low willingness of real estate companies to start construction, reduced government infrastructure investment, and slow collection of funds, the demand for infrastructure construction has not improved significantly, the start-up rate of engineering cranes is insufficient, and the willingness and ability to pay for equipment demand have declined accordingly, making it extremely difficult to sell new machines.
On the other hand, the market has a large inventory and the industry has overcapacity. At present, the inventory of the crane market remains high. Relevant data show that by the end of 2023, the inventory of wheeled cranes in my country will be between 287,000 and 311,000 units, and that of tower cranes will be between 306,000 and 331,000 units. In 2023, the total sales of the four major types of cranes in my country (tower cranes, truck cranes, crawler cranes, and truck cranes) will exceed 69,000 units. Due to the low frequency of crane equipment updates and oversupply in the market, a large number of equipment are idle.
Since 2024, many leading domestic crane companies represented by XCMG, Zoomlion and Sany have won large orders in overseas markets, staging a race to go overseas.
Since 2024, China’s engineering crane products have continued to make significant progress in the international market, especially in the countries along the “Belt and Road” route. The export volume of multiple product categories such as truck cranes and crawler cranes has increased. Many leading domestic companies have won a large number of orders in overseas markets, staging a race to go overseas.
At the end of March 2024, the delivery ceremony of Zoomlion’s 600-ton all-terrain crane was held in Jakarta, Indonesia, becoming another milestone for Zoomlion to break through the Indonesian market. In May 2024, Zoomlion’s 1,250-ton crawler crane was delivered to South Africa, becoming the largest tonnage crawler crane in Africa. On August 23, 2024, Zoomlion held a departure ceremony for 8 crawler cranes in Changsha Lugu Industrial Park. This batch of equipment will eventually be delivered to large offshore oil and gas engineering contractors in the United States. It is reported that the crawler cranes dispatched have a lifting capacity of 150-800 tons, and have many advantages, such as load-carrying form, strong functional scalability, excellent lifting capacity for high and heavy lifting, wide adaptability to working conditions, and convenient disassembly and assembly. Among the dispatched equipment, ZCC9800W is the largest tonnage crawler crane currently exported by the company to the American market. Driven by the localization development strategy in key countries, Zoomlion’s overseas business has a strong momentum of development.
