Recently, South Korean media published an article said that in recent years, due to the rapid growth of Chinese construction machinery companies, the global construction machinery companies' sales rankings have fluctuated. Korean construction machinery companies, aiming to enter the top five in the world, must overcome the strong competitor China by diversifying their products and markets.

China's Xugong Group (third), Sany Heavy Industry (fourth) and Zoomlion (seventh) are among the world's top 10 construction machinery manufacturers in terms of sales by 2022, according to the ranking of European construction research agency KHL. Their combined share rose from 14 per cent in 2019 to 19.2 per cent last year. The ranking of individual companies has also risen one to three places in three years.

John Deere of the US, which ranked third globally, fell to fifth place over the same period. The company's share fell from 5.5% to 4.9%. Caterpillar of the US and Komatsu of Japan, the world's top two companies, also retained their positions but lost share. Caterpillar fell to 13.8 per cent from 16.2 per cent, while Komatsu fell to 10.9 per cent from 11.5 per cent.

In terms of the total market share of the top 50 construction machinery companies, the U.S. and Japan decreased while China increased. In 2019, the U.S., Europe, Japan, China and Korea had 27.3 percent, 26.4 percent, 23.1 percent, 17.6 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively. By 2022, Europe, China, the U.S., Japan and Korea will have 26.5 percent, 24.2 percent, 21.2 percent, 21.1 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively.

Chinese companies have secured technological and price competitiveness based on the domestic market, and have become threatening competitors in global markets such as North America. Sany, for example, which concentrates on general-purpose products such as excavators and loaders and is seen as a competitor to South Korean companies, has also responded to environmental regulations by electrifying its products.

The three HD Hyundai construction machinery companies aim to rank fifth in the world by 2025 based on their combined market share. But because of the leap forward of Chinese companies, achieving this goal has become a formidable challenge. HD Hyundai Engineering Machinery plans to achieve its goal by introducing new products and strengthening its presence in the market outside China.

Experts say government support is needed in addition to diversifying product lines and markets. Oh Seung-hoon, head of the Mechanical Technology Policy Center at the Korea Institute of Machinery and Technology, said, In order to carry out social overhead capital (SOC) projects, support such as the purchase of domestic construction machinery and equipment quota or the expansion of investment in research and development in high-tech fields is needed. Editor/Xu Shengpeng