According to the latest statistics from the China Association of Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers, from January to September this year, the industrial value-added rate of agricultural machinery enterprises above designated size nationwide was 13%, higher than the 9.9% value-added rate of the machinery industry in the same period, a relatively outstanding performance. Although the fourth quarter is the traditional off-season for agricultural machinery production and the growth rate may decline, analysts believe that the agricultural machinery industry is expected to maintain a growth rate of more than 15% this year.

　　In terms of output, the output of grain combine harvesters by key enterprises increased by 26.92%, among which wheeled wheat harvesters grew by 41.42% and corn harvesters by 38.7%. A total of 33,468 corn harvesters were sold, with a sales-to-production ratio of 89.18%, among which the sales-to-production ratio of four-row corn harvesters was 84.56%. From January to September, the sales revenue of grain combine harvesters by key enterprises increased by 18.25% year on year, and profits increased by 20.79% year on year, higher than the revenue growth rate.

　　From January to August, agricultural machinery enterprises above designated size nationwide achieved total profits of 14.021 billion yuan, up 17.76% year on year. Tractors, livestock machinery and components ranked among the top three sub-sectors in terms of year-on-year profit growth. Profit growth in most sub-sectors exceeded revenue growth, mainly thanks to lower upstream supply prices in the machinery industry this year, with prices of steel, nonferrous metals, fuel and power declining significantly, easing the pressure of rising costs.

　　In this regard, Ning Xuegui, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers, analyzed that in a year when the national macroeconomic situation is operating at a low level, there are many factors enabling the agricultural machinery industry to maintain rapid development, with four particularly prominent ones: first, the obvious pulling effect of policies; second, the continued increase in rigid market demand; third, the obvious investment-driven effect; and fourth, the results of enterprise industrial upgrading, which have promoted the sustained and stable development of the industry.

　　Industry insiders believe that as land concentration advances in China, a new demand model for the agricultural machinery market will emerge: the "dumbbell" model. That is, in terms of demand volume, it will show a pattern of large at both ends and small in the middle. This change will mainly occur in plain areas rich in land resources. With the rapid advancement of land concentration and large-scale operation, as well as the rapid rise of agricultural cooperative organizations and family farms, a new rural model similar to the European manor economy model will appear in some economically developed regions. This model will directly push China's agricultural machinery demand toward large-scale and combined-operation equipment, while small and medium-sized agricultural machinery will completely return to the role of field management.

　　In the coming years, the focus of China's agricultural machinery market will begin to shift from the three major crops to cash crops. The mechanization of cash crops will surely become a focus of government attention, especially the mechanized harvesting of cash crops, including sugarcane, cotton, potatoes, rapeseed and sugar beets. Among them, the mechanized harvesting of sugarcane, which has a relatively large planting area, will become one of the priorities. Taking the level of sugarcane mechanization as an example, from an overall perspective, mature models of machinery already exist for tillage and land preparation, planting, field management and transportation in China's sugarcane production and are already being promoted and used, while harvesting is still manual labor. With the operation process of manual cutting, leaf stripping, bundling and loading, each laborer can harvest only 0.5-0.6 tons per day, and 8-10 laborers are needed per unit area. The cost of manual sugarcane cutting already accounts for more than 40% of sugarcane production costs, and the mechanization of sugarcane harvesting has become a key factor restricting sugar production.

　　On large farms and family farms, high-end products will be more favored. For example, tractors will further develop toward mechatronics-hydraulics integration, computer intelligence, fault diagnosis and monitoring systems, automatic headland management systems, transmissions, full-load power shift, and cruise systems that can automatically adjust speed, gear and throttle, as well as high-pressure common rail systems. As economic living conditions improve, consumers will not only focus on high-end products but also pay more attention to comfort. For example, operations should minimize bending, walking and other physically demanding movements, and cabs should be comfortable and luxurious and equipped with air conditioning. These changes are no longer a dream and are getting closer to reality.

　　At the National Agricultural Mechanization Work Conference held in the first half of 2013, Vice Minister of Agriculture Zhang Taolin said that although the number of agricultural machinery and equipment in China has increased substantially, problems such as irrational equipment structure and poor infrastructure conditions for agricultural machinery use still exist seriously; although agricultural production as a whole has entered a new stage dominated by mechanical operations, the level of mechanization for tillage, sowing and harvesting in 10 provinces and municipalities is still below 40%; although the number of agricultural machinery practitioners is huge (more than 50 million operators) and agricultural machinery professional cooperatives have developed considerably, the service scale is small, the degree of organization is low, there are few highly skilled talents, and the efficiency of agricultural machinery use and operational benefits urgently need improvement; although China's agricultural machinery industry output value ranks first in the world, it still faces unbalanced, uncoordinated and unsustainable problems such as weak independent technological innovation capability, unstable quality and low reliability of many agricultural machinery products, and a serious shortage of effective supply of new products and new technologies.

　　However, the huge Chinese agricultural machinery market has not only attracted non-agricultural machinery enterprises such as automobile enterprises and construction machinery enterprises to seek opportunities, but international agricultural machinery giants have also accelerated their pace of laying out in China. Data show that in the first three quarters of this year, the growth rate of foreign direct investment reached as high as 169.76%, and foreign agricultural machinery enterprises continue to increase their efforts to seize the Chinese market. This year, Germany's CLAAS laid out in China by holding a controlling stake in Shandong Jinyi. So far, all globally renowned large agricultural machinery enterprises have established their own manufacturing bases in China. Japan's Kubota has also officially entered the corn combine harvester field it had never been involved in before, increasing its investment in China. Therefore, the upgrading of competition quality in the agricultural machinery industry will further promote the upgrading of the agricultural machinery industrial structure. Market competition will become more intense, and the improvement of market concentration and quality will become inevitable.