Expo comes in the backdrop of surging Chinese construction and quarrying equipment demand and augmenting sales.

bauma CONEXPO China 2018 that was held at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC) from 27-30 November, was a sight to behold graced by the presence of a record number of exhibitors. displaying a slew of comprehensive range of construction, road building and quarrying sector models. The trade fair provided a noteworthy platform to global OEMs including Volvo Construction Equipment, Wirtgen Group, Liebherr, Sandvik and Powerscreen. The four-day expo also witnessed the presence of myriad small- and medium-sized manufacturers from countries like Germany, Italy, Korea, Spain, Turkey and the US.

Over 3,300 exhibitors introduced and showcased their latest construction, road building and quarrying equipment at bauma China 2018. The number of exhibitors surged 11 per cent on the back of 2,958 exhibitors from 41 countries that unveiled their respective innovations to around 170,000 visitors.

The expo comes in the backdrop of surging Chinese construction and quarrying equipment demand, and sales is expected to augment further. China saw momentous sales growth of equipment in the fast half of the year driven by wheeled loaders that have been the highest volume machines in Asia’s largest economy, and excavators. This year is seeing robust growth for crawler dozer, mini excavator and mobile crane sales in the country, according to industry data. The need to replenish ageing machine fleets has also driven demand for Chinese equipment.

New infrastructure megaprojects like ‘One Belt, One Road’ Initiative, Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HZMB), etc., are partly instrumental in strengthening sentiment of domestic and global market OEMs. The need to comply with tougher engine emissions regulations is expected to act as a major driver of new machine purchases, and the same would be announced by the end of this year, experts are of the view.

Global industry exhibitions The continuing rise globally and domestically of major Chinese OEMs including LiuGong, SANY, Zoomlion, XCMG and the part Volvo Construction Equipment-owned SDLG, is a hot topic at leading global industry exhibitions. It was the focus of a special Chinese construction machinery industry promotion event on the first day of INTERMAT 2018 Paris. The event on 23 April was sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce and Chinese Embassy in France and organised by China Chamber of Commerce for Import & Export of Machinery & Electronic Products (CCCME) and China Construction Machinery Association (CCMA).

It has been a strong year for demand in the Chinese construction, road building and quarrying equipment markets, and it is tipped to remain strong in 2019, which has spurred sentiment of the industry players for bauma China.

However, the event has come in the wake of declining sales of China’s construction equipment industry in 2019 after two years of rapid growth. Work related to new projects seems to be losing steam and firms also replaced fewer old diggers and cranes, according to participants of the expo, according to a Reuters report.

China is likely to see sales of excavators, loaders and dump trucks that currently cushion infrastructure and building sectors — fall 7-8 per cent next year, down from 30 per cent growth in 2018, the report said. The expected downturn in demand underscores a major challenge facing Beijing even as it looks to fast-track infrastructure projects to support economic growth, which has cooled to its slowest pace since the global financial crisis and is facing mounting pressure from US tariffs, added the report.