In 2025, China’s construction machinery industry will officially enter a new stage of structural recovery after going through the pain of deep adjustment and transformation.
Facing the complex and ever-changing economic situation, accelerating iterative technological innovation, and constantly adjusting domestic and foreign market demands, the industry’s competitive landscape is undergoing a profound reshaping.
Looking forward to 2026 and even the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, how to grasp the trend and ride on the momentum has become the focus of the entire industry.
By sorting out the hot events, industry status and future trends in the field of construction machinery in 2025, the following eight major industry keywords for the year were extracted.
01 Stable recovery update + infrastructure two-wheel drive
In 2025, the domestic construction machinery market will show a “structural recovery”, entering a “recovery period” from an “adjustment period”, with “equipment renewal + infrastructure investment” becoming the core driving force.
As the “barometer” of the industry, the excavator market has recovered significantly, with annual sales reaching 235,257 units, a year-on-year increase of 17%, of which domestic sales were 118,518 units, a year-on-year increase of 17.9%.
Under the background of the “steady growth” policy, infrastructure investment has maintained growth, especially the commencement of mega-projects such as Yaxia Hydropower, which has continued to drive domestic demand for construction machinery; at the same time, the existing equipment renewal cycle and the country’s large-scale equipment renewal policy have formed a synergy, releasing strong replacement demand.
Looking forward to 2026, with the continued implementation of key projects and the continuation of favorable equipment renewal policies, new increments will be generated in urban renewal, new energy infrastructure, mining and other fields, and the industry’s prosperity is expected to continue to pick up.
02 Industrial upgrading overseas from “cost-effectiveness” to “technology + service” dual drive
China’s construction machinery overseas strategy will achieve a qualitative change in 2025. It will gradually shift from early product trade exports to an in-depth global layout of “localized R&D, localized production, and localized services.”
The proportion of overseas revenue of leading companies such as XCMG, Sany, and Zoomlion has approached or even exceeded 50%, and overseas markets have also jumped from Southeast Asia, South America, Africa and other places to developed countries such as Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea.
From January to November 2025, my country’s construction machinery exports reached US$53.756 billion, a year-on-year increase of 12.4%, and the full year is expected to reach or exceed US$59 billion.
Although the international trade environment is complex and ever-changing, with trade barriers stacked up in many places, the advancement of the “One Belt, One Road” initiative and the growth of emerging markets still provide structural opportunities.
In 2026, global competitiveness centered on technological empowerment and value-added services will become the key for Chinese companies to break through barriers and take root in the international market.
03 Technological innovation breaks through the independence of core components
In 2025, the construction machinery industry will achieve fruitful technological innovation results. High-end, intelligent, green, and large-scale will become the main upgrade lines, and the process of independence of core components will accelerate.
Enterprises intensively launch benchmark products: Sany electric mixer sales exceeded 10,000, launching the world’s first forward-depth development electric mixer; Zoomlion delivered the world’s largest tonnage all-terrain crane and the world’s highest wind-powered electric jib tower crane; China Railway Construction Heavy Industry rolled off the production line of the world’s first thousand-meter-level shaft hard rock
Full-section tunnel boring machine; Sunward Intelligent released a complete set of unmanned emergency rescue equipment; at the same time, as XCMG XES system, Shandong Heavy Industry CVT gearbox were launched, and Zoomlion power battery passed the new national standard, the core component autonomy rate reached 78%, and its performance is comparable to international brands.
Independent control of key core technologies is the cornerstone for the industry to move towards high-end. In 2026, continuing to overcome “stuck neck” links and improving the independent industrial chain will be the top priority for the development of the industry.
04 New energy large-scale green transformation is fully accelerated
In 2025, the construction machinery new energy industry will develop rapidly, achieving three major leaps in “independence of core components, full-scenario product matrix, and large-scale overseas markets” and officially entering a new stage of large-scale mass production.
Among them, electrification is still an important development trend for construction machinery. The electrification sales and penetration rates of some major products have increased rapidly. The annual sales volume of electric loaders has reached nearly 30,000 units; the sales volume of electric mixer trucks from January to October reached 13,262 units, a year-on-year surge of 109.6%.
The electrification of construction machinery has entered an explosive period of comprehensive acceleration and intensive scene development, which is reflected in the rapid increase in penetration rate, improved product matrix, diversified technical routes, and accelerated overseas expansion. The development speed and market potential cannot be underestimated.
With the innovation of battery technology and the improvement of infrastructure, the penetration rate of electric construction machinery will further increase in 2026, and full-scenario green solutions will become the new focus of market competition.
05 Acceleration of digital and intelligent transformation changes from optional to mandatory
A new round of technological revolution represented by artificial intelligence is driving the construction machinery industry to accelerate the transition to digital intelligence.
In 2025, smart equipment and smart manufacturing will advance hand in hand: On the equipment side, the proportion of output such as major technical equipment and new high-end parts will continue to increase. Demonstration projects such as Zoomlion’s unmanned “group machine collaboration” operation, Sany’s unmanned spreader press group, and XCMG’s unmanned mining truck fleet demonstrate the efficiency revolution brought about by digital intelligence transformation; on the manufacturing side, Sany’s “pumping engineering equipment”
“Full life cycle data-driven smart factory”, Zoomlion Heavy Industry’s “excavator digital full-process management smart factory”, China Railway Construction Heavy Industry’s “high-end underground engineering equipment flexible smart factory”, Sunward Intelligent’s “high-end engineering equipment product full life cycle collaborative smart factory” were selected as outstanding smart factories by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, marking a new level of data-driven and system integration.
As policy support and industry collaboration promote the upgrading of the entire industry chain, intelligence has changed from optional to mandatory, becoming a key driving force in driving upgrading of the entire industry chain and shaping new industry advantages.
06 Involution & Anti-Involution Reconstructing New Dimensions of Competition
While recovering, the industry is still facing “involution” pressure from intensified homogeneous competition and continued “price wars”.
From a policy point of view, 2025 has become the first year of legalization of “anti-involution”. In March, the government work report wrote “governing involution competition” for the first time; in June, the amendment to the “Anti-Unfair Competition Law” (implemented in October) clearly prohibited dumping below cost price; in July, the Central Financial and Economic Commission meeting again proposed “anti-involution” competition, in-depth promotion of the construction of a unified national market, and governance of low-price and disorderly competition among enterprises in accordance with laws and regulations.
In 2026, the way out for “anti-involution” lies in shifting from price war to value competition.
Enterprises need to create product differentiation through technological innovation, open up new tracks through electrification and intelligence, obtain growth space through global layout, and extend the value chain through after-market services.
Saying goodbye to low-level competition and building a sustainable ecosystem with core technologies, high-end products, and professional services as its core will become a common choice for leading companies.
07 New blue ocean of large-scale high-end equipment for mines
With the increase in global mining investment and the influence of policy factors, large-scale mining machinery has become a new highland for competition among construction machinery companies.
In 2025, the mining machinery industry will usher in a growth boom. The domestic high-end mining equipment market has exceeded 400 billion yuan, and the global market is expected to reach 123 billion US dollars, with huge potential.
In 2025, major host manufacturers will continue to develop large-scale and complete sets of mining machinery. The industry will show a trend of transformation from single equipment to complete solutions, and from pure manufacturing to a “manufacturing + service” business model. Large-scale, green mining equipment above 100 tons will be intensively launched.
In 2026, deepening the development of large-scale, complete sets and intelligent mining equipment and providing full life cycle operation services will be the key to success for enterprises to seize this incremental market.
Strategic high ground for post-2008 market service upgrade value chain extension
As equipment ownership continues to grow, after-market services such as repairs, maintenance, accessories, and remanufacturing have become rigid demands from customers and an important source of profits for the industry.
In 2025, leading companies such as Sany, Xugong, and Zoomlion have elevated the provision of full life cycle proactive services to a strategic level.
In 2026, the competition in the aftermarket will not only focus on response speed, but also on data-driven preventive maintenance, improvement of remanufacturing technology, second-hand equipment value assessment and improvement of the circulation system.
Service specialization, digitization, and platformization will become the core links for enterprises to enhance customer stickiness and build a competitive moat.
In 2025, after experiencing several rounds of market fluctuations, the construction machinery industry finally ushered in a new chapter of recovery and innovation, with market resilience and global competitiveness dually enhanced.
Looking forward to 2026, the construction machinery industry will enter a new stage where opportunities and challenges coexist. Deeply cultivating domestic demand growth, deepening globalization layout, insisting on technological innovation and digital intelligence transformation, and developing post-market and emerging tracks will become the core path to ride on the momentum. The industry is ushering in a new round of development opportunities, and the future is promising!
