Five key trends in the global excavator industry
Off-Highway Research’s new Special Report on the global excavator industry shines a light on the opportunities for OEMs, component suppliers and other stakeholders in the universally popular excavator product group. Last year more than 570,000 excavators were sold around the world with a total retail value of US$65 billion.
The report runs to 350 pages and offers detailed insights into the current state of the industry, including market size, structure, value and competitive landscape, with Off-Highway Research’s characteristic accuracy and attention to detail. Most importantly detailed forecasts by region and equipment type offer readers guidance on where the industry is going and how the industry can benefit from future growth.
Here are some of the most important trends the report unearths:
1. Demand for excavators is growing faster than other types of equipment
Long term compound annual growth in global excavator demand across mini, wheeled and crawler machines is 4.6%, compared to 3.5% for the construction equipment industry as a whole. As a result, every second construction machine sold in the world today is an excavator of some type, as opposed to one in three 20 years ago.
Forecasts suggest growth in excavator sales will continue to be better than that seen in the construction equipment market as a whole.
2. Emerging markets offer the best growth, but be prepared for a bumpy ride
Excavator sales in emerging economies have grown anywhere from 7x to more than 20x in the last two decades, a trend which is broadly expected to continue. However, these markets can see much bigger peaks and troughs than mature markets. High long-term growth will continue in many developing markets, but OEMs and component suppliers not only need to be resilient to short-term volatility, they should expect it.
3. Look at market value, not just volume
While understanding the overall number of machines sold in any given market is important, the devil is always in the detail. Differences in market structures (local preferences for bigger or smaller machines), the specification required by laws & regulations, customer expectations on spec and options, and historic pricing have a huge influence on the value of the market and the potential for profitability.
For example, the North American excavator market is currently about 10% smaller than China in volume terms, but 50% more valuable in Dollar terms.
4. Electrification take-off point?
Most electrification of construction equipment to date has been wheeled loaders and wide bodied trucks used in mining & quarrying. Demand for electric excavators has lagged. However, that started to change in 2026 with a number of Chinese cities starting to ban diesel equipment in a bid to improve air quality. In addition, the high oil price this year has rekindled interest worldwide in electric equipment in general.
The anticipated rapid uptake of electric excavators in China will also see more solutions come to market around the issues of charging logistics and infrastructure. This is a crucial key to unlock excavator electrification worldwide.
5. Chinese dominance?
A decade ago Chinese OEMs accounted for 6% of global excavator sales. Japanese OEMs were the dominant force with a 49% share. By 2025 the proportions had shifted, to a 30% for Chinese OEMs, while the Japanese share had shrunk to 34%.
However, market growth in the intervening period has meant that no matter what the ‘nationality’ (location of the head office) of the OEM, almost everyone is selling more excavators than they did 10 years ago.
A further nuance is that roughly 10% of the excavators sold around the world last year were made in China by non-Chinese OEMs.
While China has emerged over the last decade as the world’s largest excavator-producing country, it has been a rising tide which has lifted all boats
Click here for more information on Off-Highway Research’s report on the global excavator industry, or contact mail@offhighwayresearch.com