When does the engineering machinery disorder arrive?

The bauma (BMW), the biennial top event of the construction machinery industry, was held in Shanghai. It seems to indicate that the industry's focus has gradually shifted eastward. After 10 years of rapid development, with the development and expansion of a number of top companies and mergers and acquisitions of veteran European and American companies, the Chinese construction machinery industry has begun to establish a "river status" in the world.

However, an intensified battle until it was torn, not only exposed the grievances and grudges of the two largest companies in the domestic construction machinery industry over the past few years to the public, but also exposed many problems facing the industry and even the crisis. It is not only Sany Heavy Industry and Zoomlion, but also the entire construction machinery industry.

End of good time in ten years

Price war, layoffs, zero down payment... Along with the long struggles between Sany Heavy Industry and Zoomlion, both sides have continued to have negative news on newspapers. Although the content of “breaking news” is imaginary, at least from one side It reflects that the industry started to be a bit messy.

“When everyone has a good market environment, we all make money, and the use of various business methods is not mutually supportive. However, once the external environment changes and the market shrinks, it is related to the problem of life and death. Therefore, all the previous behaviors will change. As a weapon to attack competitors, the purpose is to force opponents to corners to gain greater room for their own survival,” a researcher in the construction machinery industry told this reporter.

Relying on the large-scale development of the construction machinery industry driven by large-scale domestic investment in infrastructure construction, it seems that it has come to a corner.

According to the production and operation data of the construction machinery industry in the first 10 months of this year, the total industrial output value of the national construction machinery industry during this period was 501.633 billion yuan, an increase of only 1.53% year-on-year; the sales value of 492.263 billion yuan was completed, an increase of only 2.5% year-on-year.

Due to the impact of the external economic environment and the decline in investment in fixed assets, the good time for the construction machinery industry, which has lasted for 10 years, has basically been declared to have ended, and companies with rapid growth accompanying the development of the industry will inevitably face the problem of insufficient stamina.

According to Su Zimeng, secretary general of the China Construction Machinery Industry Association, "the market demand is insufficient, and stabilization expectations are postponed; sales continue to fall, stocks are at high levels; profits have fallen sharply and costs have increased significantly; accounts receivable have risen and capital pressure has increased." These problems are a summary of the current situation facing the domestic construction machinery industry.

According to statistics, domestic excavator sales fell by 36.74% year-on-year in the first 10 months of this year, loader sales decreased by 28.54% year-on-year, bulldozer sales decreased by 29.75% year-on-year, road roller sales decreased by 40.23% year-on-year, and truck crane sales decreased by 37.61% year-on-year.

The entire industry can be described as a downturn.

10 years of good time allowed a number of domestic companies to grow, of which Sany became the sixth largest construction machinery company in the world, followed by Zoomlion’s ranking seventh, and some small and medium-sized enterprises have not been left behind. The space for survival was found in their respective fields.

However, today's situation has caused the industry to slowly change.

M & A and innovation game

“The problem with many of our companies is that they can scale large enough, and they can also participate in international market competition through overseas mergers and acquisitions, but the ability to innovate is still a serious shortage.” Seen from a senior practitioner in the construction machinery industry As a result, the scale effect of domestic companies is obviously not enough to support their long-term foothold.

Data show that last year, the national construction machinery industry's operating income exceeded 500 billion yuan, which is the output value created by more than 1,700 companies, and only US construction machinery giant Caterpillar companies last year operating income as high as 60.138 billion US dollars (equivalent to about RMB 381.6 billion yuan), net profit of up to 4.928 billion US dollars (equivalent to about 31.2 billion yuan).

“While many long-established foreign-owned enterprises have been acquired by us, you can't say that they are completely the company's own problems, but also the economic environment in Europe and the United States,” said the aforementioned person. “These companies that have been acquired or are to be acquired are Some professional fields have absolute technical advantages. According to the fashionable terms, 'invisible giants' cannot be overstated."

According to Su Zimeng, the trend of the construction machinery industry in the future toward high-end and intelligent development will become more and more obvious, and the technological content and production concentration will also be higher, which will increase the access threshold.

"The market share of domestic companies is often concentrated in the low-end areas, and the high-end construction machinery and core components are always controlled by foreign companies. Therefore, the higher the market share, the more the profits will be eaten." A construction machinery manufacturer person told this reporter that “Fortunately, the current situation has changed, and some domestic large manufacturers have begun to focus on the introduction and absorption of professional technology.”

Compared with the frequent foreign capital mergers and acquisitions of Chinese-funded construction machinery companies in the past few years, it seems that there has been an upheaval. XCMG completed the control of Germany's concrete industry giant Schweinging. Since then, all three shots of the global concrete industry have been controlled by Chinese companies. Sany Heavy Industries purchased Putzmeister, Germany, earlier this year, and Zoomlion acquired the world's third-ranked Italian concrete machinery manufacturer, CIFA, as early as 2008, and established its first overseas base in India.

According to the contents of the “Twelfth Five-year Development Plan for the Construction Machinery Industry”, the key supporting components for the high-tech, high-value-added products in the domestic construction machinery industry currently rely on imports, and the average price per ton exceeds 80,000 US dollars. For example, transmission components, control components, diesel engines, and key hydraulic components are severely in short supply, and the overcapacity and structural shortage are strongly opposed, which affects the development of Chinese construction machinery to high-end technology products.

Domestic companies still have a strong dependence on foreign investment in key technologies such as the core technology of accessories and electronic control technologies.

Therefore, after the merger and acquisition of foreign-funded enterprises by domestic enterprises, the integration and absorption of technology is particularly important. This is also a more important task for companies such as Sany Heavy Industry, Zoomlion, and Xugong Machinery. The challenge is obviously better than It is more valuable to fight.