Recently, CCTV2's "Economic Information Broadcast" program aired the report "China's Smart Manufacturing Sells Well Overseas." The reporter visited Zoomlion's Smart Industrial City for an on-site exploration, showcasing the company running at full capacity to fulfill excavator orders and its latest achievements in creating a new calling card of intelligent products. The following is the report content.

Excavator export volume continues to climb

Enterprises running at full capacity to fulfill orders

Excavator exports have shown strong growth momentum. What about the production side? The reporter recently visited manufacturing enterprises in Hunan and found that multiple excavator manufacturers are running at full capacity to fulfill orders, with overseas markets becoming their new growth engine.

At an excavator manufacturing enterprise in Changsha, Hunan, the assembly line is bustling, with one excavator rolling off the line every six minutes on average. The person in charge told the reporter that since the second half of this year, their order volume has grown significantly, and the production line has remained at full-load operation.

Wu Daxin, Assistant General Manager of Zoomlion's Earthmoving Machinery Company: (Each day) roughly over 100 units roll off the line. Basically, once they come off the line, we can ship them out promptly. Currently, demand exceeds supply, and production has already surpassed last year's full-year output.

Wu Daxin said the core driver of excavator sales growth comes from the continuous expansion of overseas markets. Currently, exports account for more than 70% of their excavator business. In terms of export destinations, emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and South America show strong demand, while exports to mature markets such as Europe and North America also remain stable.

Wu Daxin, Assistant General Manager of Zoomlion's Earthmoving Machinery Company: In the third quarter, our overall sales performance grew by more than 50% compared with the same period last year, and this growth was mainly driven by overseas sales.

Data from the China Construction Machinery Association shows that from January to September 2025, China exported 84,162 excavators, up 14.6% year on year. In September alone, excavator exports reached 10,600 units, up 29% year on year. Export growth is accelerating.

China's excavator exports have achieved positive growth for 13 consecutive months, mainly benefiting from the expansion of overseas mining demand and the recovery of infrastructure demand in some regions. Therefore, in the industry data, the export growth rate of medium and large excavators is higher, while mini excavators have also grown thanks to the recovery of demand in Europe and the United States.

Remote control enables precise operation

Intelligence becomes a new calling card of Chinese excavator products

In overseas markets, intelligence and automation are the two biggest highlights of Chinese excavators.

At the intelligent testing base of an excavator manufacturing enterprise in Changsha, Hunan, after a staff member issues voice commands to a tablet computer, multiple unmanned excavators, loaders, and aerial work vehicles coordinate precisely and automatically complete the entire process of grabbing, transferring, and unloading simulated materials.

These devices receive instructions from a cloud scheduling system, automatically plan paths, identify obstacles, and execute work actions, achieving fleet collaboration. Overall operating efficiency is more than 40% higher than with traditional methods.

Dong Shenghao, Human-Machine Interaction Engineer at Zoomlion Research Institute: It is a progression from single machines to fleets and then to smart construction, so now at a deeper level, we are achieving stronger collaboration capabilities.

Industry insiders say that through the in-depth application of big data models, digital twins, and artificial intelligence technologies, excavator manufacturers are completing the transformation from selling steel hardware to selling smart solutions, and from one-time equipment transactions to full-lifecycle value services. This transformation is reshaping the value chain and competitiveness of excavator exports.