In the construction machinery market, the crawler excavator market has become increasingly saturated in recent years and has entered the stock era. However, wheeled excavators have bucked the trend and shown strong development potential, and the second-hand wheel excavator market has gradually emerged.
From the perspective of the start-up rate, the start-up rate of crawler excavators was around 60% when the market was booming in the past two years, and the start-up rate of tire excavators was over 90%. In 2023, the start-up rate of crawler excavators was below 20%, and the start-up rate of wheeled excavators was over 30%. Such a clear contrast fully demonstrates the high efficiency of wheeled excavators in practical applications. The ability of wheeled excavators to maintain a high start-up rate is inseparable from their flexible characteristics. It can quickly transfer and shuttle between different construction sites, saving time and reducing costs. Moreover, it has less damage to the road surface and adapts to the requirements of various construction environments, which makes second-hand wheeled excavators also quite popular in the market. Some contractors of small projects or short-term projects are more willing to buy second-hand wheel excavators for cost considerations, because they can meet the needs of the project and the price is relatively low, and the return on investment is relatively considerable.
Leading companies such as Sany, XCMG and Liugong in the domestic market have entered the wheel excavation product line, which is undoubtedly a strong affirmation of the prospects of the wheel excavation market. These companies mainly focus on 15t products and seem to deliberately avoid small-tonnage models. Xinyuan Heavy Industry, which has always been the top domestic wheel excavator, mainly focuses on small-tonnage models. In 2022, Xinyuan Heavy Industry's wheel excavator sales reached 4,642 units, accounting for half of the wheel excavator market. In mid-2023, Liugong launched three wheel excavators, 906FW, 9075FW and W915E, all of which are small-tonnage models. This shows that different companies have different layout strategies in the wheel excavation market, but they all see the development opportunities of wheel excavators, which also indirectly affects the market structure of second-hand wheel excavators. For example, some popular brands and models of second-hand wheel excavators have a relatively high value retention rate in the second-hand market and more active transactions due to their high popularity in the new machine market.
In terms of exports, wheeled excavators also performed well. According to statistics from the association, a total of 3,807 wheeled excavators were exported from January to October, an increase of 29.3% over the same period in 2022, accounting for 45.54% of the sales of wheeled excavators in the first 10 months; the total export amount was US$245.63 million, an increase of 15.2% over the same period in 2022. Central Asia is one of the popular export regions for wheeled excavators. Hengte has just exported 16 wheeled excavators and customized products to Central Asia. The company said that the company's wheeled excavator products are mainly exported to Central Asia, and are mainly 20t models, which is closely related to the local usage scenarios and customer usage habits. Wheeled excavators can play a role in places where crawler excavators are not convenient for construction, and their convenient transfer advantages are fully reflected. Correspondingly, in the second-hand wheel excavator export market, those second-hand wheel excavators with better quality and shorter service life also have a certain share, meeting the needs of some foreign customers for cost-effective engineering equipment.
Finally, industry insiders analyzed that wheel excavators, as a supplement to crawler excavators, were originally auxiliary equipment and did not have a dominant position, but with the advancement of urbanization, wheel excavators will play a greater advantage. Although the momentum of large-scale infrastructure construction in China is not as fast as before, there are still many small maintenance needs, so wheel excavators can maintain a relatively stable growth trend. After the overall economic situation returns to stability, the demand for wheel excavators, especially small-tonnage models, should grow rapidly. This also means that the second-hand wheel excavator market still has a large room for development in the future. With the replacement of the new machine market and the diversification of user needs, second-hand wheel excavators will play an important role in meeting the needs of users at different levels.
In summary, wheel excavators are becoming more and more popular in the market with their high start-up rate, flexible transfer, adaptability to different construction environments, and good performance in domestic and foreign markets, and the second-hand wheel excavator market is also showing an active trend. With the continuous advancement of urbanization and the gradual improvement of the economic situation, the development prospects of wheel excavators and second-hand wheel excavators are worth looking forward to.