In recent years, with the country’s huge investment in energy construction, a series of major energy equipment projects have been launched. Taking the petrochemical project as an example, the domestic main oil refinery and chemical bases were mostly the scale of 3 million tons of oil refinery and 300,000 tons of ethylene per year 10 years ago. In recent years, they have successively built 1,000 production plants in Qingdao, Maoming and Tianjin. The key equipment for the construction of these refineries is the tens of thousands of tons of refineries and 1 million tons of ethylene. The key equipment for the construction of these refineries is four 1000-ton crawler cranes imported from abroad. The second generation of nuclear power developed in China in recent years was completed by the construction of imported super crawler cranes.
In 2011, due to the adjustment of the country’s macroeconomic policies, the credit tightening policy led to a slowdown in the progress of projects under construction and some of the projects originally scheduled to be started. Crane end users were affected by the credit tightening policy, the purchase cost was reduced, and the demand for purchases was reduced, resulting in China In 2011, construction cranes showed an unexpected increase in the first quarter, a slowdown in the second quarter, and a weak rebound in the third quarter.
The rise of the 1000-ton crawler crane
The large-scale lifting and hoisting machinery belongs to the state's major technical equipment. It is one of the most critical equipment for all major infrastructure projects in the global economic field. The overseas crawler cranes developed earlier and the technology was relatively mature. In 2002, Terex introduced the world's first 10,000-ton crawler crane. The domestic crawler cranes did not launch the first 150-tonne class until 2003, and all large-tonnage crawler cranes depended on imports. With the acceleration of large-scale projects in major projects in the new century, domestic super crawler cranes have begun to appear before everyone. Since 2004, the concept of “super crane” has emerged in the global construction machinery industry. The giants of international cranes have launched ultra-large crawler cranes with a maximum lifting weight of more than 1,000 tons and a maximum lifting torque of more than 10,000 tons per meter. The largest manufacturing capacity of Chinese companies is still below 300 tons.
With the rise of China's economy, electricity, petrochemicals, steel, and transportation infrastructure have entered a construction boom, and demand for large-tonnage crawler cranes has been strong. Strong enterprises have increased their investment in the research and development of crawler cranes. XCMG launched 300 tons of crawler cranes in 2005. In the end of 2006, it also launched 450-ton crawler cranes. In 2008, it launched 650 tons of crawler cranes, and 1,000 tons were launched in 2010. Grade, 2000-ton crawler cranes and 3000-ton crawler cranes also entered the research and development stage. The launch of the 1,000-ton crawler cranes opened the prelude to the rapid development of China's super crawler cranes.
At present, there are only a few countries in the world that can produce ultra-large crawler cranes of over 10,000 tons. The total output is only dozens. In China, the competition of crawler cranes is mainly concentrated in four companies: Zoomlion, Xugong Construction, Fugong Heavy Industry, and Sanyi Technology. The internal competition of these four companies is very fierce, while other brands are subject to the top four competitive threats and pressures.
The crawler crane products of the 4 first-ranked companies in China, represented by Xugong, have all exceeded the one-kiloton level. The collective rise of Chinese companies is exactly the result of the industry's accumulated achievements. The local brand's technological innovation capability will not only break the monopoly of foreign-funded enterprises, but also hopes to make the global demand for ultra-large crawler cranes “Made in China”.
Crawler cranes will usher in high tide
In the first three quarters of 2011, China sold 1,485 crawler cranes, a year-on-year increase of 10.57%. Among them, sales of 443 units in the first quarter, an increase of 42.90%; second-quarter sales of 597 units, a year-on-year decline of 2.29%; a certain degree of rebound in the third quarter, but the rebound is limited, the cumulative sales of 445 units, an increase of 5.45%. Only 161 crawler cranes were sold in the month of September. Zoomlion ranked first in terms of sales volume of 57 units. In terms of tonnage, it was mainly concentrated in the range of 1 to 70 tons.
In the face of such a huge market, crawler crane manufacturers are doing their best.
On November 1st, 27 R&D personnel of Shantui Crawler Crane Research Institute officially moved from Jining to Shenyang Institute of Research to provide strong support for Shantui to seize emerging markets, formulate strategies, make scientific decisions, and develop new products.
On October 23, XCMG 1000-ton crawler crane lifted an 810-ton reactor in Qingdao and successfully hoisted the first crane. Three days later, an 810-tonne equipment was hoisted into place again and it successfully challenged the construction limit twice. Up to now, Xugong's 1000-ton and 2,000-ton two super cranes have completed 9 large-scale hoisting constructions. The XCMG super crawler cranes have established high-density and heavy-lifting characteristics in the national real-world (blog) field. Leading position.
At the 2011 Global Construction Machinery Leasing Development Forum held recently, Suzi Meng, Secretary General of the China Construction Machinery Industry Association, stated that as a national strategic emerging industry, crawler cranes with a capacity of 400 tons or above have been selected as the National Development and Reform Commission No. 9 of 2011. The "Encouragement" products in the Catalogue of Industrial Structure Adjustments published in Item 48.
Su Zimeng said that although the construction machinery market is currently facing severe challenges, it is generally judged that in the coming period, the country’s economic growth momentum will remain strong, and the risk of rapid economic growth falling will be relatively small. China’s construction machinery industry will still face a precious period of development opportunities. It is believed that in the period to come, China's crawler crane industry will surely usher in a new upsurge in R&D and promotion.