DX520LC-9C, a hot-seller excavator produced by Doosan Infracore. (Photo: Doosan Infracore)

Doosan Infracore has enjoyed a winning streak in China by getting orders for large-sized excavators, as the Chinese construction machinery market has begun to show positive signs of recovery.

Doosan Infracore said on May 5 the company landed orders on a combined 20 large-sized excavators in Qinghai, China’s northwestern province, Inner Mongolia, an autonomous are of northern China, and Shanxi, an eastern province.

The latest achievement is owed to the company’s focus on sales of medium- and large-sized excavators with higher profit margins.

Doosan Infracore sold six large-sized excavators to a client company specializing in mine excavation equipment rental in Qinghai in mid-April - five units of 80-ton excavator (DX800LC-9C model) and a 50-ton excavator (DX520LC-9C model).

With the selling of the excavators in Qinghai, Doosan Infracore has established a foothold in the provincial mine market.

The Korean company already logged a market share of more than 15 percent in the Qinghai area last year.

The figure represented an over two-fold increase on the average market share of 7.3 percent in the whole of China in 2019.

A mining and infrastructure equipment rental company ion Inner Mongolia purchased three 80-ton excavators from Doosan Infracore in the same month.

A construction industry company in Shanxi bought 11 excavators from Doosan Infracore – six 49-ton excavators (DX490LC-9C), two 45-ton excavators (DX450LC-9C), and three 36-ton excavators (DX360LC-9C).

Doosan Infracore was highly appreciated compared to its European and Japanese competitors for products, boasting excellent mileage, efficient work performance and its local dealerships’ quick service response capabilities, a Doosan Infracore official said.

Doosan Infracore plans to strengthen marketing activities prioritizing medium- and large-sized excavator line-ups with higher market entry barriers and profit margins, since the Chinese construction machinery market is facing fierce competition.

On April 6, Doosan Infracore revealed that it had received orders for 32 medium-sized, 22-ton grade excavators from two large construction companies involved in infrastructure construction.

These excavators are expected to be used for the infrastructure construction of Chanchun Shi, which will construct a subway, expressway, and a bridge.

Yunseong Yeom, Managing Director of sales in China, said “Customers who placed orders this time are willing to purchase at least 10 more excavators. We will be able to receive more and more additional orders by providing the customer with superb quality of our product and customer relationship.”

Doosan Infracore’s market share in the Chinese excavator market was 7.3 percent last year. The company’s market share in the Jilin region was also somewhere between 10-19 percent for the last three or four years with the accumulated market share this year for February close to 13 percent.

The manufacturing industry in China is showing signs of rapid recovery, which fell greatly due to the infectious coronavirus (COVID-19) earlier this year. On March 31, the National Bureau of Statistics of China announced that the manufacturing PMI for March was 52.0.

It was a sharp rebound in PMI following a record low of 35.7 last February. If the manufacturing industry PMI exceeds 50, economic expansion is on the horizon.

With accumulated sales through February reaching 14,000 excavators, the Chinese excavator market shrank by half compared to the same time last year, but then returned to the previous year’s level as 40,000 excavators were sold during the month of March.

An inside source of Doosan Infracore was quoted as saying “The Chinese market demand began showing signs of recovery, although it was slow for about two months at the beginning of the year.

The industry expects that a full-scale return of the peak season will take place sometime in April or May.”