Three Major Engineering Machinery Leaders Report Profit Growth in the First Half of the Year: Strengthening Overseas Markets and Accelerating Electrification

As of September 3, 2024, it has been reported that the three leading companies in the engineering machinery sector—SANY Heavy Industry (600031), Xugong Machinery (000425), and Zoomlion (000157)—have all released their semi-annual reports, showing a continued positive growth in net profits for the first half of the year. This growth is attributed to the strengthening of overseas markets.

In detail, Xugong Machinery reported a revenue of 496.32 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.21%, but a net profit of 37.06 billion yuan, reflecting a growth of 3.24%. Meanwhile, SANY Heavy Industry achieved a revenue of 387.38 billion yuan, down 1.95%, but its net profit rose by 4.8% to 35.73 billion yuan. Zoomlion's revenue reached 245.35 billion yuan, marking a 1.91% increase, and its net profit surged 12.15% to 22.88 billion yuan.

All three companies attributed their performance improvements to increased overseas revenues. Specifically, SANY Heavy Industry's overseas revenue reached 235.42 billion yuan, a 4.79% increase, accounting for 62.23% of total revenue. Xugong Machinery's overseas revenue was 219 billion yuan, up 4.8%, representing 44% of its total revenue. Notably, Zoomlion exhibited the highest growth rate in overseas revenue, which increased by 43.9%, making up 49.1% of its total revenue, surpassing Xugong Machinery.

Additionally, the gross profit margins for overseas products were higher than those for domestic products across all three companies, with Zoomlion showing the highest margins. The overseas product gross profit margins for the first half of the year were 32.13% for Zoomlion, 31.57% for SANY Heavy Industry, and 24.41% for Xugong Machinery. The domestic product margins were 24.63%, 23.03%, and 21.69%, respectively.

From an industry-wide perspective, the total import and export trade volume for China's engineering machinery reached 27.134 billion USD in the first half of 2024, representing an increase of 3.13% year-on-year. The export value was 25.837 billion USD, an increase of 3.38%.

According to the China Construction Machinery Association, the cumulative sales of 12 major product categories included in its statistics reached 969,000 units, marking a 4.58% increase. Domestic sales totaled 597,000 units, with a 0.31% increase, while exports totaled 372,000 units, a 12.3% increase.

Moreover, the growth of electric engineering machinery products was significant in the first half of the year. Xugong Machinery reported that high-end product revenue increased by over 10% year-on-year, accounting for more than 32% of total revenue, up 4 percentage points from the previous year. Revenue from new energy products surged 26.76% year-on-year, with new energy loaders seeing nearly a 100% increase in revenue, making up 23.3% of total revenue—ranking first in the industry. Xugong's fire-fighting machinery, driven by lithium battery aerial platform vehicles, saw its new energy product revenue ratio rise to 74%, an increase of 6.7 percentage points year-on-year.

Zoomlion mentioned that its new energy main engine products continued to expand, and the industrialization of key components accelerated. In the first half of the year, the company launched 22 new energy main engine products, covering aerial work machinery, concrete machinery, engineering cranes, and earthmoving machinery. A series of new energy main engines, such as the 100-ton pure electric telescopic boom Crawler Crane and the 55-ton dragline Electric Excavator, were successfully rolled off the production line.

The China Construction Machinery Industry Association reported that in the first half of the year, 5,114 electric loaders were sold domestically, a 361% year-on-year increase. Sales of electric forklifts reached 469,000 units, a 24.2% increase compared to the same period last year, accounting for 70.8% of total forklift sales. The electric rate for lifting work platforms exceeded 90%.