Currently, China's construction machinery industry is in the bottoming-out phase of a downward cycle. With limited growth in domestic demand, overseas markets have naturally become the focus of industry development.

According to customs data, from January to April 2025, China's construction machinery exports amounted to US$18.07 billion, a year-on-year increase of 9.01%; of which April exports totaled US$5.152 billion, up 12.7% year-on-year.

As a representative product of the construction machinery industry, excavators' export performance aligns with the overall industry trend, with 34,405 units exported from January to April, a year-on-year increase of 9.02%; of which April exports reached 9,595 units, up 19.3% year-on-year.

Why has China's construction machinery export achieved such impressive results? Construction Machinery Brand Network will explore this from both internal and external driving forces.

Internal Driving Forces

1 An increasingly powerful industrial chain

China's increasingly powerful industrial chain is the underlying reason supporting growth in overseas markets. At present, China's manufacturing industrial chain is already highly complete, possessing strong competitiveness in global market competition in both product output and transportation processes, and this competitiveness continues to improve.

Take the construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway as an example. In December 2024, the launch ceremony of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway project was held in Jalalabad, Kyrgyzstan. It is scheduled to officially commence construction in July 2025, with a construction period of six years. Once completed, the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway will become the shortest overland corridor connecting China with Central Asian countries. From East Asia to the Middle East and Southern Europe, the rail distance will be shortened by approximately 900 kilometers compared with current routes, saving 7 to 8 days in travel time. The construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway provides an excellent opportunity for Chinese construction machinery enterprises to penetrate the Central Asian market and establish broad brand awareness and sales networks.

2 Continuously improving product performance

The improvement in the performance of China's construction machinery products provides strong support for accelerating overseas market expansion. In recent years, the performance of China's construction machinery products has continued to improve, offering greater cost-effectiveness compared with foreign products. Moreover, through continuous research and development, the core components of China's world-class products have largely achieved domestic production, no longer constrained by foreign brands.

On May 16, during the Changsha Exhibition, Zoomlion's new product launch event for complete sets of mining machinery equipment was grandly held at Zoomlion's Earthmoving Machinery Park. That day, Zoomlion released 15 high-end large-scale, electric, and unmanned mining products, showcasing 23 series of complete equipment including mining excavators, mining trucks, loaders, and bulldozers. All mining equipment released by Zoomlion on this occasion has achieved full domestic production of core components.

External Driving Forces

1 Continued growth in traditional markets

Taking excavators, the representative equipment of construction machinery, as an example, according to customs data, in the first quarter of 2025, Indonesia ranked first among China's excavator export destinations with US$230 million, accounting for 10.15% of the total, with export volume of 4,477 units. Among these, Indonesia's infrastructure boom and the continued release of demand for mineral development have become the core driving force behind China's excavator exports.

Russia ranked second among China's excavator export destinations with US$189 million, with export volume of 1,788 units. Growth in the Russian market benefits from the deepening of China-Russia economic and trade cooperation and the Far East development strategy. Industry insiders generally expect the Russian market to remain stable and continue growing.

2 Strong demand in emerging markets

Still taking excavators as an example, according to customs data, in the first quarter of 2025, exports to Mali and Guinea in West Africa showed substantial year-on-year growth. In the first quarter of 2025, excavator exports to Guinea reached as high as US$93 million, compared with only US$22 million in the same period of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 317.2%. Meanwhile, exports to Mali also grew substantially, with export value of US$72 million in the first quarter of 2025, up 409.2% year-on-year.

The growth of China's construction machinery exports to African countries is due, on the one hand, to their slow urbanization and inadequate infrastructure, which has led to strong demand for construction machinery. On the other hand, Africa is rich in mineral resources, accounting for 30% of the global total, with various countries generally possessing important minerals, resulting in strong demand for mining equipment such as excavators and bulldozers.

Constraints facing exports

As domestic construction machinery enterprises continue to penetrate overseas markets, their internationalization process is gradually facing risks and competition from multiple aspects, and enterprises need to take measures to respond appropriately.

1 Overseas involution among Chinese enterprises

Facing sluggish domestic market demand and vicious industry competition, "go overseas or go out of business" has become an industry consensus. As more and more domestic manufacturers begin to布局 overseas markets, the trend of involutionary vicious competition has gradually spread from the domestic market to overseas markets.

2 Competitive pressure from foreign brands

In the process of accelerating internationalization of China's construction machinery enterprises, international giants such as Caterpillar and Komatsu are containing the expansion of Chinese brands through means such as technology blockades and patent litigation, while emerging manufacturing countries such as India and Turkey are seizing the mid-to-low-end market with low-cost advantages, creating a "two-way squeeze" on Chinese products.

3 Geopolitical and regional market fluctuations

The political situations in some countries involve certain uncertainties, which bring risks to construction machinery enterprises' overseas market expansion. For example, the first phase of the China-Thailand Railway began in 2017 and was originally scheduled to open in 2020, but to date only 35% has been completed. The main reasons for the delay are Thailand's internal political struggles and land acquisition difficulties.

4 Trade barriers

In April, the U.S. tariff trade war broke out suddenly. Since May export data has not yet been released, the specific impact remains unknown, but it will most likely have a certain impact on China's construction machinery exports to the U.S. market. In addition, European and American markets are restricting imports by raising tariffs and setting technical trade barriers, which also poses considerable challenges to China's expansion into the European market.

Looking ahead to 2025, how will the market development trends of China's construction machinery industry change? We may conclude this article with predictions from senior leaders of construction machinery enterprises.

Zhou Jun, Deputy Party Secretary and General Manager of Anhui Heli Co., Ltd., stated: Cautiously optimistic. 

Zhuo Puzhou, Deputy Party Secretary and General Manager of China Railway Hi-Tech Industry Corporation Limited, believes: There may be growth abroad, while the domestic market will remain basically flat.

Li Shizhen, Party Secretary and Chairman of Shantui Construction Machinery Co., Ltd., believes: Domestic growth of 10% to 15%, and overseas growth of around 10%.

Fei Chunjiang, Chairman and General Manager of Komatsu (China) Investment Co., Ltd., stated: Relatively optimistic; excavators should see growth of more than 10%. 

Wang Liping, Chairman of Jiangsu Hengli Hydraulic Co., Ltd., stated: Both this year and next year will see growth.