Excavator sales continued to improve in October. According to the data of the Construction Machinery Industry Association, the sales volume of excavators in October 2022 will be 20,501 units, a year-on-year increase of 8.1%, which is lower than the 13% previously expected by the association, and the growth rate has increased by 2.6pct month-on-month, continuing the recovery trend since July. Among them, domestic sales were 11,350 units, a year-on-year decrease of 9.9%, a sharp decrease of 14.6pct from the previous month, higher than the association's expected value of 2.8pct; export sales were 10,667 units, a year-on-year increase of 43.8%.
In October, the year-on-year recovery of loaders slightly expanded, mainly due to the narrowing of the decline in domestic sales. According to the data of the Construction Machinery Industry Association, the sales volume of loaders in October 2022 will be 9,448 units, a year-on-year increase of 1.85%, and the growth rate will increase by 1.2pct month-on-month, which will become positive for the second consecutive month year-on-year. Among them, domestic sales were 6,304 units, a year-on-year decrease of 5.98%, a sharp decrease of 11pct from the previous month; export sales were 3,144 units, a year-on-year increase of 22.3%.
Multiple factors have contributed to the stabilization of construction machinery sales. In terms of domestic demand, on the one hand, enterprises seized the last window period for the switch of the "National IV" standard for non-road mobile machinery on December 1 to accelerate the clearance of "National III" product inventory. On the other hand, the driving effect of the "steady growth" policy continued, and the progress of infrastructure projects was steadily advancing, which led to continuous improvement in downstream data. In October, the utilization rate of Pangyuan leased tower cranes reached 63.5%, an increase of 0.5pct from the previous month, which was the lowest since May. Since then, the chain has achieved continuous improvement. In terms of exports, the year-on-year growth of construction machinery is still strong; although the growth rate has slowed down slightly this month due to the decline in the external demand boom, sales are still at historical highs. In the long run, the logic of overseas construction machinery and equipment remains unchanged, and the industry is expected to benefit from globalization.
Marginal improvement in domestic demand, construction machinery business is expected to usher in recovery. In the short term, the traditional year-end sales peak season is approaching. Looking ahead, infrastructure investment is gradually stabilizing, real estate policies have been relaxed, and industry demand is expected to improve marginally. According to the CCTV Finance and Economics Excavator Index, the average monthly operating rate of construction machinery in my country in the third quarter of this year was 64.76%, which was higher than the monthly average of 60.37% in the first half of the year, and the start of infrastructure projects gradually returned to the right track.
The overseas layout of Chinese enterprises is gradually showing results, and new energy equipment is expected to create new kinetic energy. Since 2022, the export of traditional construction machinery has strengthened, and the growth rate in Russia, ASEAN and other regions has been more prominent, which is expected to further drive the overall market share of domestic brands to increase steadily. At the same time, electric and hydrogen fuel products have been commercialized one after another, and domestic companies have stepped up efforts to deploy new energy construction machinery business, and use new energy products to further open up the market. According to data from the Construction Machinery Industry Association, a total of 981 electric loaders will be sold from January to October 2022. The continuous increase in the penetration rate of the new energy equipment market is expected to create new growth points and drive the long-term steady increase in the sales scale of domestic enterprises.
