Excavator index shows China’s V-shaped recovery powered by construction

Three minutes; 11.7 billion yuan ($1.78 billion). It doesn’t seem fair, but that’s Chinese speed. And it’s what happened in an excavator show in China.

The excavator index, a measure of economic health, has been proof of the Chinese economy’s V-shaped recovery during the global epidemic.

“Our company expects its construction business in China to continue to be strong due to government spending on infrastructure and building activity,”

Caterpillar vice president Chen Qihua said at a media briefing in Shanghai, which is hosting Bauma China, a community for the Asian construction machinery industry.

The organizer of the event said more than 3,000 companies from 93 countries around the world participated in the exhibition, regardless of travel restrictions, and the number of exhibitors was the same as in 2018. Companies included Sany, Zoomlion, XCMG, Caterpillar and Volvo.

At 8 o’clock on Tuesday, Sany kicked off a global online promotion, which generated over 23 billion yuan in two hours, a record for the industry’s online promotion. More than 17,919 excavators were sold in three minutes.

China’s construction machinery industry experienced heavy losses at the beginning of the year from COVID-19, but it has recovered since March.

Data from the China Construction Machinery Association showed that in the first 10 months of the year, 263,800 excavators were sold in China, a year-on-year increase of 34.5 percent, exceeding by 12 percent last year’s annual sales.

The recovery pace of the construction industry is also in line with China’s efforts in virus control and economic recovery.

The booming sales were mostly driven by the government’s efforts on infrastructure investment, and as the government continues to steer the country toward economic recovery, demand for excavators in China may continue,” Dong Dengxin, director of the Finance and Securities Institute at Wuhan University of Science and Technology, told the Global Times on Friday.

$36.23b Total sales of 11 Chinese companies in global top 50 Source: China Construction Machinery Association Graphic: GT