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The market for mobile cranes in China fell 20 per cent in the first half of the year according to Off-Highway Research. It said 3,900 all-terrain, crawler, industrial rough-terrain and truck cranes were sold in China in the first six months of 2016, compared to 4,900 for the same period last year.

Off-Highway Research expects a 16 per cent fall in the market this year. This is expected to be the bottom of the cycle, with a gradual recovery starting in 2017. Annual mobile crane sales are forecast to rise to 9,500 units by 2020.

The all-time high for crane sales in China was in 2011, when a staggering 34,902 units – some 95 per cent of which were truck cranes – were sold on the back of the government’s stimulus spending boom. However, construction activity has slowed significantly since then and the high field population of cranes is a barrier to new machine sales. Off-Highway Research puts China’s crane population at 195,500 machines.

“The market remains saturated by a much larger machine population than is needed, and license controls on truck-mounted cranes hinders the transfer of ownership.  This means truck-mounted cranes are dificult to resell, even if they are repossessed by suppliers,” said Off-Highway Research.

Off-Highway Research’s new report, ‘Chinese Equipment Analysis: Mobile Cranes’ is available to buy from the company’s on-line store. Click here for more details. The report, along with Off-Highway Research’s mid-year review on the Chinese construction equipment market is part of its Chinese Service subscription. Click here for more details.