Outperforming National Growth for 47 Consecutive Months! China’s Machinery Industry Exports Serve as the Ballast for Foreign Trade

Data from the China Machinery Industry Federation shows that since the start of this year, China's machinery industry has achieved robust growth in overseas exports. Machinery exports have outpaced the overall growth rate of national foreign trade for 47 consecutive months, with multiple growth drivers demonstrating its role as the ballast of foreign trade.

Multiple Growth Drivers Underpin Its Role as Foreign Trade Ballast

Statistics indicate that in the first seven months of this year, China's machinery industry posted a cumulative export value of USD 664.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 20.8%, 2.3 percentage points higher than the overall national foreign trade growth rate. Its total exports account for 26.3% of China's goods trade exports, firmly securing its position as the ballast for foreign trade. Order data from enterprises reflects ample growth momentum.

Experts point out that the strong export performance of China's machinery industry rests on three core pillars. First, rigid equipment demand driven by the global green transition of infrastructure continues to surge. Procurement demand for low-carbon heavy-duty equipment is expanding rapidly in overseas scenarios including mines, ports and new energy power stations. Second, long-term technological accumulation within the domestic machinery industry keeps delivering results. High-end equipment matches the performance of leading international brands while boasting superior adaptability. Third, the global R&D, manufacturing and service networks built by enterprises over years are gradually put into operation, and enhanced localized service capacity greatly lifts acceptance among overseas customers.

Multi-point Breakthroughs and Structural Optimization Featuring Three New Traits

Different from the previous export model relying on large-volume sales of mid-to-low-end products, China's machinery exports have shown distinctive transformation characteristics in market coverage, industrial structure and product segments since the start of the year, and a diversified and in-depth growth pattern is taking shape at an accelerated pace.

According to experts reviewing industrial operating data, machinery exports present new features: The first feature is diversified market layout. Since the start of the year, Chinese machinery products have served more than 230 countries and regions worldwide, deeply integrating into global industrial and supply chains. China Railway Construction Heavy Industry won the bid for the cable tunnel project in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. SDLG shipped batches of high-end bulldozers to Indonesia and Central Asia.

The second feature is the parallel growth of pillar industries with continuous gathering of new growth drivers. Five major sectors — electrical equipment, automobiles, petrochemical general machinery, construction machinery and basic mechanical parts — together contribute over 70% of total exports. All fourteen sub-sectors achieved year-on-year export growth, nine of which recorded growth above 10%. Electrical equipment, automobiles and construction machinery have maintained double-digit growth for more than 13 consecutive months.

Besides, the product structure of China's machinery industry is accelerating its shift toward high-end products. Export value of complete automobiles rose by 56.5%, while both export volume and value of electric passenger vehicles increased by over 70%. High-tech and high value-added products are becoming the core driving force for export expansion.

The "Three Transformations" Light Up a New Path for Global Expansion

Shifting from supplying standalone equipment to delivering complete green solutions, and from competing on price advantages to competing on full-lifecycle technical services, marks a new highlight of China's machinery exports. Essentially, it represents the concentrated release of the industry's progress in fostering new-quality productive forces in the global market, contributing Chinese equipment power to the green upgrading of global industries.

Currently, the global competitiveness of China's machinery industry has fully shifted toward the synergy of high-end, intelligent and green development — the "Three Transformations". XCMG delivered hybrid loaders with the world-class load capacity of their class to overseas mining areas, helping mining projects cut comprehensive energy consumption costs by over 60%. BYD sold 789,400 new energy vehicles overseas in the first half of the year, up roughly 68% year-on-year, winning wide recognition among global consumers.

With rising added value of machinery products, the profitability of domestic machinery enterprises' overseas businesses has improved accordingly. For Zoomlion, overseas revenue accounts for nearly 60% of its total revenue this year, and gross profit margin of overseas business exceeds that of domestic business. The enterprise has completed the upgrade from exporting standalone equipment to supplying complete sets of machinery and full-lifecycle operation and maintenance services.

Experts state that these vivid cases fully prove that China is leveraging core competitiveness cultivated through new-quality productive forces. China's machinery industry is reshaping the division of labor in the global equipment industry and providing stronger resilience for stable global industrial and supply chains.

Ye Dingda, Vice President of the China Machinery Industry Federation: The export highlights of the machinery industry are not merely numerical growth in scale, but qualitative transformation of the whole industry. Our equipment not only brings low-carbon and high-efficiency solutions to global users, but also shares practical experience accumulated through technological iteration of China's machinery industry with the whole world. This constitutes an important contribution of China's manufacturing sector in the global industrial upgrading process.