Overseas markets strengthen, and the three major construction machinery giants continued to see positive net profit growth in the first half of the year.

Recently, Sany Heavy Industry (600031), XCMG Machinery (000425), and Zoomlion (000157) successively disclosed their semi-annual reports. During the reporting period, all three companies achieved year-on-year net profit growth. Among them, XCMG Machinery had the largest revenue and net profit scale, Zoomlion had the highest year-on-year growth rate, and Sany Heavy Industry's overseas market share rose to 60%.

Specifically, in the first half of the year, XCMG Machinery achieved revenue of 49.632 billion yuan, down 3.21% year on year, and net profit of 3.706 billion yuan, up 3.24% year on year; Sany Heavy Industry achieved revenue of 38.738 billion yuan, down 1.95% year on year, and net profit of 3.573 billion yuan, up 4.8% year on year; Zoomlion achieved revenue of 24.535 billion yuan, up 1.91% year on year, and net profit of 2.288 billion yuan, up 12.15% year on year.

All three companies stated in their announcements that the performance improvement was affected by growth in overseas revenue.

According to disclosures, in the first half of the year, all three companies achieved growth in overseas revenue, and the proportion of overseas revenue also further increased. Among them, Sany Heavy Industry achieved overseas revenue of 23.542 billion yuan, up 4.79% year on year, with its share of total revenue rising to 62.23%. XCMG Machinery's overseas revenue was 21.9 billion yuan, up 4.8% year on year, with its share of total revenue rising to 44%. Zoomlion had the highest overseas revenue growth rate, up 43.9% year on year, with its share of total revenue rising to 49.1%, surpassing XCMG Machinery.

In addition, the gross profit margins of overseas products for all three companies were higher than those of domestic products, with Zoomlion having the highest gross profit margins for both domestic and overseas products. In the first half of the year, the overseas product gross profit margins of Zoomlion, Sany Heavy Industry, and XCMG Machinery were 32.13%, 31.57%, and 24.41%, respectively, while their domestic product gross profit margins were 24.63%, 23.03%, and 21.69%, respectively.

From the perspective of the industry as a whole, in the first half of 2024, China's construction machinery import and export trade volume was 27.134 billion US dollars, up 3.13% year on year. Among them, export volume was 25.837 billion US dollars, up 3.38% year on year.

Data from the China Construction Machinery Association show that in the first half of the year, cumulative domestic and international sales of the 12 major categories of products included in the association's statistics totaled 969,000 units, up 4.58% year on year; among them, cumulative domestic sales were 597,000 units, up 0.31% year on year; cumulative export sales were 372,000 units, up 12.3% year on year.

In addition, in the first half of the year, electrified construction machinery products grew significantly.

XCMG Machinery stated that in the first half of the year, revenue from high-end products increased by more than 10% year on year, accounting for more than 32% of total revenue, up 4 percentage points year on year. Among them, new energy products entered a fast growth track, with revenue up 26.76% year on year. Revenue from new energy loaders increased nearly twofold year on year, accounting for 23.3% of total revenue, ranking first in industry sales. Driven by lithium-battery straight-boom platform vehicles, XCMG Fire Fighting's new energy product revenue share reached 74%, up 6.7 percentage points year on year.

Zoomlion mentioned in its announcement that new energy main machines continued to expand, and the industrialization of key components accelerated. In the first half of the year, the company launched 22 new energy main machine products, covering aerial work machinery, concrete machinery, engineering cranes, earthmoving machinery, and others. A batch of new energy main machines, including 100-ton pure electric telescopic-boom crawler cranes and 55-ton cable-powered electric excavators, rolled off the production line.

According to statistics from the China Construction Machinery Association, in the first half of this year, cumulative domestic sales of electric loaders were 5,114 units, up 361% year on year; electric forklift sales were 469,000 units, up 24.2% from the same period last year, accounting for 70.8% of total forklift sales; and the electrification rate of aerial work platforms exceeded 90%.

Sany Heavy Industry stated that in the first half of 2024, the construction machinery industry gradually improved overall. Domestic demand bottomed out and recovered. Driven by multiple positive factors, including the gradual implementation of a series of policies such as the Action Plan for Promoting Large-Scale Equipment Renewals and Trade-Ins of Consumer Goods, the acceleration of machinery replacing manual labor, and the industry's low-carbon transformation trend, the market showed an accelerating recovery. Overseas markets made steady progress, Chinese companies' global competitiveness continued to improve, overseas market share steadily expanded, and overseas market prospects are broad.

As of the close on August 30, Sany Heavy Industry was at 16.12 yuan per share, with a total market value of 136.617 billion yuan; XCMG Machinery was at 6.36 yuan per share, with a total market value of 75.151 billion yuan; Zoomlion was at 6.32 yuan per share, with a total market value of 54.845 billion yuan.