Doosan Infracore announced that it sold 10,728 hydraulic excavators in China in H1 2020. This is the company’s largest sales volume in nine years since it sold more than 12,000 units in the market in H1 2011. The company sold 1,320 excavators in June, a 23% increase in sales over the previous year.
China’s hydraulic excavator market suffered a slowdown in the first two months of the year due to COVID-19 but is now consistently showing signs of a rapid recovery. Overall sales in the Chinese hydraulic excavator market exceeded 155,000 units in H1 2020, significantly exceeding the 125,000 units sold nationwide in H1 2019.
Source: Kikai-News (The original article was partially revised by the author.)
PSR Analysis: China is still the largest market for South Korean construction equipment OEMs, and this situation is likely to continue for some time. North America and Europe are still battling COVID-19 and the future is not clear. The size of the domestic market itself is small, and there is still a long way to go in Southeast Asia.
Chinese domestic OEMs have been rapidly gaining strength in recent years, and there is still a risk that the Chinese government will tighten restrictions on foreign OEMs in order to foster and protect domestic companies. While this is great news for Doosan, foreign OEMs must continue to evaluate the risks of doing business in China. PSR
Akihiro Komuro, Research Analyst, Far East and Southeast Asia for Power Systems Research
