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2. Chinese equipment sales fell 6 per cent in 2021

Despite a sharp downturn beginning in the second quarter of 2021, construction equipment sales in China fell only 6 per cent last year, from the 10-year high of 483,120 units sold in 2020.

Among the higher volume machines sold in China, the steepest falls in sales last year were seen for compaction equipment and mobile cranes. Falls in sales of mini and crawler excavators were in line with the wider market, while the decline in wheeled loader sales was limited to just 1 per cent.

None of the higher volume equipment types (sales of more than 10,000 units per year) in China saw growth last year. However, there were sales gains for a number of niche products, including rigid dump trucks, skid-steer loaders and wheeled excavators.

Off-Highway Research’s outlook for the Chinese market is for a continued decline in sales this year and 2022, before the market bottoms out around 320,000 units in 2024.

Although this would represent a 34 per cent decline from the peak of 2020, it should be borne in mind that sales over the last two years have been artificially high due to stimulus measures put in place to address the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. As such, the forecast is for a return to more normal volumes from 2024-2026, comparable with the sales levels seen prior to the pandemic in 2018 and 2019.

Full details of last year’s changes, split across 15 construction equipment types, are available in the newly updated Chinese Database Service. This includes details of sales and production of each equipment type by OEM and by year. Commentary on the data will be available through the Chinese Annual Review, which will be published in April, and which will be available to subscribers to both the Chinese Service and Chinese Database Service.

Subscribers to the Chinese Database Service can login here. Non-subscribers can contact [email protected] for more details about our reports and subscription packages.

The Chinese market will also be discussed in the forthcoming Off-Highway Global Briefing webinar on 29th March. Click here for more details and to book your place.