en.Wedoany.com Reported - Since July, China's Sany Heavy Industry and XCMG have raised prices of various models, including wheeled and crawler cranes, by 2% to 5%. Since the beginning of this year, multiple leading construction machinery companies, including Sany Heavy Industry, XCMG, Zoomlion, LiuGong, Shantui Construction Machinery Co., Ltd., and Sunward Intelligent Equipment, have successively issued price adjustment notices for various products, drawing industry attention.
At the beginning of the year, Sany Heavy Industry's subsidiary, Sany Pump and Road Machinery, raised prices of concrete machinery, including concrete pump trucks, mixer trucks, and mixing plants, by 3% to 5%. Zoomlion increased prices of all electric mixer trucks in stock on April 1, with price hikes exceeding 10,000 yuan for different models. Entering May, excavator products became the focus of price increases. Starting May 15, Sany Heavy Industry's controlled subsidiary, Sany Heavy Machinery, raised prices of its excavator products by 5%. LiuGong raised prices of its excavator products by 5% from May 20. XCMG's wholly-owned subsidiary, Xuzhou XCMG Excavator Machinery Co., Ltd., raised prices of different models by 3 to 5 percentage points from June 1. Shantui Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. raised prices of different models by 3% to 5% from June 1. By June, Sany Heavy Industry and XCMG announced that their crane products would see price increases starting in July. Fan Zhengrong, General Manager of Sunward Intelligent Equipment's Excavator Division and Dean of its Research Institute, stated that the company's excavator products have seen varying degrees of price increases globally. International construction machinery giants are also raising prices simultaneously. Caterpillar imposed a 3% to 5% surcharge on some models in March this year and plans a second round of price increases in July, ranging from 4% to 7%. Komatsu raised prices of excavators and wheel loaders in February by 7% and 8%, respectively, and will implement a uniform 5% price increase across its full range of construction models in August. The global construction machinery industry has formed a synchronized price increase trend both domestically and internationally.
The core reason for this wave of price increases is the continuous rise in upstream costs. In its "Notice on Price Increase of XCMG Crane Products," XCMG's Crane Division explicitly stated that the sustained price hikes of major raw materials such as steel, hydraulic components, electronic devices, and rubber, along with rising comprehensive costs in manufacturing, labor, and logistics, have led to continuously increasing product manufacturing costs. Sany Heavy Industry, LiuGong, and other leading companies also pointed out that raw material prices, including steel, oil products, rubber, copper, and aluminum, have continued to rise significantly. These raw material costs account for a large proportion of construction machinery product costs, and their price increases directly impact the profit margins of these companies.
From the demand side, the recovering sales data in the industry provides support for price increases. Shantui Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. responded to investors that in the first quarter of this year, the company's excavator sales volume and revenue both achieved growth rates exceeding 30%. Data from the China Construction Machinery Association shows that from January to May this year, China sold a total of 126,875 excavators, a year-on-year increase of 24.7%; loader sales reached 67,162 units, a year-on-year increase of 27.3%. A research report from Caixin Securities stated that the recovery of China's domestic construction machinery market is driven by the sustained availability of funds for infrastructure projects, which has released demand for new equipment due to extensive construction needs, as well as the gradual implementation of large-scale equipment renewal policies, injecting momentum into the replacement of existing equipment. A seasoned industry insider in construction machinery noted that choosing to raise prices during the window of demand recovery is, to some extent, a signal from leading companies to counter "involution" in the industry. A research report from Huatai Securities also pointed out that the core driver of this round of price increases is the pursuit of healthy and sustainable development by leading companies amid rising costs. A 5% price increase is expected to offset the price hikes of bulk raw materials such as steel, copper, and aluminum since the beginning of the year. The stance of industry leaders suggests that the industry may shift from "exchanging price for volume" to "value competition," breaking the market's expectation of sustained deflation in the industry. A research report from Dongwu Securities analyzed that domestic excavator demand in China is expected to grow at an average annual rate of over 20% from 2025 to 2028, with this cycle projected to peak around 2028. However, due to the impact of fund availability, the conversion of demand into sales is relatively slow, presenting an overall moderate and sustained recovery trend. A research report from Huatai Securities also believes that the current age of China's domestic excavator fleet remains at a high level since 2016, and combined with the replacement space created by the export of used machinery, this supports the recovery of domestic demand.
Favorable factors are driving the recovery of the construction machinery industry. The gradual implementation and commencement of major infrastructure projects in China, such as the Yaxia Project, along with the stabilization and rebound of coal prices driving growth in mining demand, will support excavator demand to a certain extent. Overseas, with metal prices remaining high, strong demand for mining operations is expected to boost demand for overseas mining machinery. Demand from emerging markets is also becoming increasingly evident. Data from Changsha Customs shows that in the first five months of this year, Hunan's construction machinery exports to Africa reached 2.55 billion yuan, an increase of 85.2%. Despite the combination of favorable factors, this round of price increases is expected to repair corporate profitability, but competition among construction machinery companies remains intense. Yuan Zhen, Secretary-General of the Changsha Construction Machinery Industry Association, stated that under the trend of leading companies taking the lead in raising prices, the "involution" of price wars among construction machinery companies may temporarily ease, but it is difficult to fundamentally alleviate. Companies completing price repairs driven by costs will bring volatility to the industry, but it is still difficult to fully confirm whether this wave of price increases marks a turning point in the development cycle of the construction machinery industry. A relevant company executive indicated that compared to product price increases, going global, electrification, and intelligence are more critical for the current construction machinery industry, as product pricing is influenced by multiple factors during development.
Under the major trends of electrification and intelligence, the prices of construction machinery products will become increasingly correlated with raw material prices such as batteries. Zoomlion raised prices of all electric mixer trucks in stock on April 1, with the core reason being the surge in battery-grade lithium carbonate prices. From July 2025 to March 2026, the price of battery-grade lithium carbonate rose from approximately 75,000 yuan per ton to 170,000 yuan per ton, an increase of up to 130%, and as of the time of writing, the price exceeded 160,000 yuan per ton. In November 2025, four mobile crane manufacturers, including Germany's Liebherr, submitted an anti-dumping investigation application to the European Commission regarding Chinese mobile cranes. On December 19 of that year, the European Commission officially announced the initiation of an investigation, which remains unresolved. The complainants argued that the prices of products from China are significantly lower than those of similar products from the EU industry, depressing overall market prices and hindering price increases that should have occurred.
Fan Zhengrong stated that going global requires compliance with the rules of the host countries and regions, and cannot use the same strategies as in the Chinese domestic market, especially in terms of product compliance and market promotion. In 2025, Sunward Intelligent Equipment's international market revenue accounted for 64.88% of total revenue. Currently, XCMG's overseas revenue accounts for 48.2% of total revenue, Sany Heavy Industry's accounts for 64%, and Zoomlion's accounts for 58.56%. As the proportion of overseas revenue increases, Chinese construction machinery companies will need to consider multiple factors, including peer competition and policy environments, more carefully when pricing products overseas in the future.
