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2. Exports drive Chinese backhoe loader production

The backhoe loader has never been popular in China. Traditionally the market was dominated by wheeled loaders, but in the last decade tastes have switched to the crawler excavator. The country has never had a strong domestic manufacturer to champion the backhoe loader concept in the way the UK or US has, and as a result the machines have never become established.

Despite growing equipment demand in general in China over the last three years, backhoe loader sales have fallen from 255 units in 2015 to just 130 units in 2019. With total construction equipment demand of 367,420 units in 2019, the backhoe loader represented 0.04 per cent of demand.

However, production of backhoe loaders in China last year totalled 850 units, with several large indigenous OEMs using these machines to target export markets.

Discussion of these trends and the underlying drivers of the Chinese backhoe loader industry is available in the April 2020 Backhoe loaders China equipment analysis, which is now available to subscribers to the Chinese Service. Click here to log in. The report is also available to buy for non-subscribers as a stand-alone study. Click here for more details.