Since 2024, the engineering crane market has faced numerous challenges, such as a significant reduction in downstream demand, insufficient operating rates, persistently high equipment inventories, and intensified market competition, which have led to consecutive declines in sales of new engineering cranes, especially in the domestic market, which has been difficult to revive. This situation inevitably raises concerns among industry practitioners: where will the engineering crane market go in the future?

01 The engineering crane market faces challenges

From January to November 2024, sales of the three major crane products—truck cranes, crawler cranes, and truck-mounted cranes—all declined. Among them, truck cranes and crawler cranes saw relatively large declines of more than 20%, while truck-mounted crane sales fell slightly by 4.2%. The details are as follows:

From the perspective of the domestic market and the export market, the domestic market faces a more severe situation, with domestic sales of truck cranes and crawler cranes falling by -37.4% and -44.3%, respectively. However, export sales are considerably more optimistic by comparison, with truck crane export sales increasing by 20.8%, while exports of crawler cranes and truck-mounted cranes declined slightly.

As Chinese construction machinery enterprises further deepen their overseas presence, overseas markets are expected to become an effective driver for the accelerated recovery of the engineering crane industry.

02 Continuous breakthroughs in super-large-tonnage and intelligent products

In 2024, engineering crane product technologies continued to achieve new breakthroughs, providing strong support for many major domestic and international engineering projects and demonstrating the development resilience of the engineering crane industry.

In terms of large-tonnage products, Zoomlion rolled off the world's largest 4,000-tonne all-terrain crane on September 28. This is a new record set by Zoomlion after creating its star products of 2,000 tonnes and 2,400 tonnes. This product is mainly developed for the installation of extra-large and extra-high onshore wind turbines, covering working conditions for 6MW–10MW wind turbine installation, and can meet the installation of wind turbines at a height of 185 meters.

At the recently held 2024 Shanghai Bauma Exhibition, Zoomlion also exhibited two record-breaking large-tonnage products: the world's largest tonnage luffing-jib crane—the ZTK120000V, and the world's largest tonnage distributed electric-drive crawler crane—the ZCC1500V-1EV, continuously pushing the boundaries of engineering crane technology.

XCMG also launched the 4,000-tonne wheeled crane XCA4000 this year. At the 2024 Shanghai Bauma Exhibition, the XCMG XCA4000 was ordered on the same day and rushed to a construction site in Tianjin overnight after the exhibition ended. The next day, several 4,000-tonne wheeled cranes that had already been sold before the exhibition opened also set off successively for Hebei and Zhuhai. The XCMG XCA4000 can meet a lifting height of 190 meters and an ultimate lifting weight of 190 tonnes, solving the installation challenges of extra-high and high-power wind turbines. On December 10, another brand-new XCMG XCA4000 was delivered.

On October 31, SANY launched its first 9-axle 4,000-tonne-class crane and delivered it to a customer. This SAC40000T all-terrain crane is specially designed for wind power working conditions. After full assembly, it reaches a height of 203 meters and can meet the installation of future 185-meter-high 10MW wind turbine units. Subsequently, this SAC40000T successfully completed its first lift at the 200,000-kilowatt wind power project in Pingchuan, Baiyin, Gansu. This project is a typical mountainous wind farm with many slopes and sharp turns and very limited working space, and the flexible advantages of the SAC40000T's nine axles were well received by the customer.

In terms of intelligence, engineering cranes have also made progress. For example, at the Shanghai Bauma Exhibition, Zoomlion released the first smart lifting overall solution, building a smart lifting overall solution based on three core technology systems, deeply integrating AI technology with the entire lifting process, reconstructing the lifting business model, and driving the lifting industry toward digital and intelligent operations across the entire value chain.

In terms of business model innovation, XCMG launched the G2 high-end crane brand in April. While launching a series of new products, it also proposed three major value models, including an exclusive customization model, a 3-year warranty service model, and a 5-year 50% value-retention floor model. At the same time, it released the G2 generation product value platform covering the entire industry and full lifecycle, providing a floor for users' operations. XCMG is breaking through the cocoon of market homogenization with technological and business model innovation.

Looking back to the early 21st century, the largest tonnage all-terrain crane China could build was only 100 tonnes. Today, several leading enterprises have successively launched 4,000-tonne-class all-terrain cranes, with products continuously breaking through toward larger scale and greater intelligence. This is not just an increase in numbers, but an iteration of technology.

03 Continuous deepening and expansion in international markets

Since 2024, Chinese engineering crane products have continued to make significant progress in international markets, especially with notable export growth to countries along the Belt and Road. Export values of multiple product categories, such as truck cranes and crawler cranes, have risen. Enterprises such as Zoomlion and XCMG have won large numbers of orders in overseas markets, demonstrating the strong competitiveness of Chinese engineering cranes in the international market.

In 2024, Zoomlion engineering cranes achieved the following important breakthroughs in overseas markets.

Exports of large-tonnage and large-batch products continued to break records. In March, Zoomlion's 600-tonne all-terrain crane was delivered to Indonesia, the largest-tonnage all-terrain crane exported by the industry to Indonesia. In May, multiple ZCC9800W large-tonnage crawler cranes were successfully exported to the UAE, demonstrating the strength and charm of Chinese manufacturing in the international competition of the high-end equipment manufacturing industry. In September, Zoomlion engineering cranes received in the UAE a batch order for a one-time purchase of more than 50 engineering crane units, as well as an order for the super-large-tonnage ZCC18000 crawler crane. The ZCC18000 crawler crane became the largest-tonnage crawler crane in the UAE. In addition, Zoomlion's 1,250-tonne crawler crane was successfully delivered to a customer in South Africa, becoming the largest-tonnage crawler crane in Africa to date.

Overseas exhibitions attracted attention and brought large orders. In late April, at the MT Construction Machinery Exhibition held in Brazil, Zoomlion engineering crane products signed orders worth more than 50 million, and potential business opportunities worth as much as 180 million were identified. At the 17th Turkey International Construction Machinery, Technology and Equipment Trade Exhibition (KOMATEK), which opened at the end of May, Zoomlion cranes, with outstanding products and technologies, reached cooperation with numerous customers, with a total signed amount exceeding 10 million US dollars.

At the same time, domestic enterprises such as XCMG and SANY have also further expanded in overseas markets.

In March this year, the XCMG XLC17000 crawler crane was exported to the Philippines. The crawler crane delivered this time has a maximum lifting capacity of 1,250 tonnes and, once put into use, will become the largest-tonnage mobile crane in the country. In 2024, XCMG cranes left their footprint in many countries. For example, the XCMG XLC260 crawler crane assisted in the construction of a wharf yard in North America, the XGC400-I crawler crane assisted in the construction of a natural gas combined cycle power plant project in Eastern Europe, and the XCA160 all-terrain crane assisted in lifting operations in a mining area in Oceania...

In July 2024, SANY's 2,200-tonne giant crawler crane was delivered to Turkey's Hareket Group to strengthen its crane fleet in the UAE market. SANY Heavy Industry's semi-annual report stated that in the first half of 2024, the company's overseas market shares of truck cranes, all-terrain cranes, and rough-terrain cranes all increased significantly.

Overall, although the engineering crane market faced challenges in 2024, technological breakthroughs in super-large-tonnage and intelligent products, as well as the in-depth expansion of international markets, have brought new growth points to the industry. In the future, under the effect of policy support and the bottoming-out and recovery of market demand, the engineering crane industry is expected to continue to maintain innovative vitality. Engineering crane manufacturers need to continuously adjust their business strategies and increase their efforts to improve service quality and technological innovation levels in order to respond to market changes and challenges.