Listed companies are an important force supporting China's economic development. Although affected by the epidemic in 2020, a large number of listed companies in China have shown obvious resistance to risks, stable growth capabilities, and strong development resilience.

Recently, listed companies in the construction machinery sector have successively released their 2020 annual reports, and listed companies that produce "big" machinery and equipment have submitted beautiful performance reports. According to Wind Information statistics, as of the close of April 15th, 10 of the 12 listed companies in the Shenwan construction machinery sector have disclosed their annual reports, of which 9 have achieved positive growth in net profit attributable to the parent company, and the net profit of XGMA has increased year-on-year With a rate of over 100%, Zoomlion’s net profit growth rate exceeded 66% year-on-year, ranking first and second. At the same time, digital and intelligent transformation have become the highlights of the business development of listed companies.

Industry development momentum is strong

New technologies represented by 5G and the Industrial Internet have fully empowered the mechanical engineering industry. Whether it is excavators, cranes, concrete machinery, or high-altitude operation machinery, the robotic arm can stretch freely when installed with a “digital brain”. Behind the concrete pouring of the island tunnel main body and artificial islands, which are the most difficult to construct in the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the concrete pumping of tall buildings over 500 meters, the construction of Daxing International Airport and other large infrastructure projects, there are Sany Heavy Industries, China Leading companies such as Lianzhong, Liugong and Sunward Intelligent.

The recent annual reports released by Sany Heavy Industry, Zoomlion, Liugong, and Sunward Intelligent show that in 2020, the company's operating revenue will reach 99.342 billion yuan, 65.109 billion yuan, 23.03 billion yuan and 9.377 billion yuan, an increase of 31.29%, respectively. 50.34%, 19.95% and 26.25%. In 2020, under the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the leading companies in the construction machinery sector have maintained a strong performance growth trend, reflecting the huge potential for the development of the domestic infrastructure market.

The change in the excavator index also confirms the good development trend of the industry. The so-called excavator index refers to the use of big data and the Internet of Things technology to connect mechanical equipment to the network, and through the big data smart platform, to accurately describe the infrastructure operating rate and other conditions. To put it more simply, it is through big data technology to grasp the sales and usage of heavy machinery tools such as excavators and cranes in real time.

All along, the Excavator Index has been regarded as the "weathervane" of infrastructure vitality. "Digging a shovel, leaving traces of data", relying on big data can grasp the entire construction, transportation and other fields of infrastructure market. In the first quarter of 2020, the main economic indicators of the construction machinery industry fell sharply. With the gradual recovery of production in the second and third quarters, there was a rapid rebound after the fourth quarter. The excavator index continued to strengthen until this year.

The annual report of Zoomlion shows that entering the era of intelligent interconnection, new technologies represented by 5G, big data, and industrial Internet are changing with each passing day, fully empowering the digital and intelligent development of construction machinery. At the same time, the weakening of the demographic dividend, the large-scale requirements of modern construction projects, and the demands of customers for product value enhancement, all require the industry to accelerate the transformation and upgrading in the direction of automation, digitization and intelligence.

Significant increase in R&D investment

Technological development of enterprises. In recent years, China's construction machinery industry has continued to develop, and the global competitiveness of enterprises has continued to improve. From the perspective of concrete, excavator, and crane products, domestic brands represented by Sany Heavy Industry, Zoomlion, Liugong and Sunward Intelligent are dominant, and their market share continues to increase.

Combing the annual reports of listed companies such as Sany, Zoomlion, Liugong and Sunward Intelligent, we can find that digital R&D investment runs through the entire process of enterprise products and services. In 2020, Sany Heavy Industry, Zoomlion, Liugong and Sunward Intelligent R&D investment will reach 6.259 billion yuan, 3.501 billion yuan, 744 million yuan and 357 million yuan, respectively, representing a year-on-year increase of 33.20%, 67.39%, 10.45% and 52.6%. ; The number of R&D personnel in the 4 companies were 5346, 5992, 1320 and 702, an increase of 69%, 36.49%, 19.78% and 33.2% year-on-year. Although the scale of each company is different, both R&D funds and R&D personnel investment have increased significantly at the same time.

Construction machinery companies strengthen investment in scientific research, the purpose is to increase the gold content of products, relying on smart products to occupy market share and increase corporate profits. In terms of digital transformation, various companies have "made moves" to strengthen digitalization and intelligence. Sany Heavy Industry focuses on promoting the construction of "lighthouse factory" and the development of electric products; Zoomlion established Zhongke Yungu Company to fully enter the field of industrial Internet; Liugong has 24 research institutes and builds a multi-integrated R&D institution; Sunward A series of digital and intelligent projects such as the intelligent intelligent three-dimensional warehouse have made good progress and realized the visualization of production site data.

It is precisely because major companies have worked hard and made practical moves in digital transformation that they have considerable business performance data. The 2020 annual report shows that Sany Heavy Industry, Zoomlion, Liugong and Sunward Intelligent achieved net profits of 15.43 billion yuan, 7.281 billion yuan, 1.331 billion yuan and 565 million yuan, respectively, an increase of 36.25%, 66.55%, and 30.87% year-on-year. And 12.35%.

Driven by the sales performance of the industry's leading companies, the construction machinery market in 2020 will buck the market and rise. According to data from the China Machinery Industry Federation, the total profit of the machinery industry in 2020 is 1.46 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.4%. Chen Bin, executive vice chairman of the China Machinery Industry Federation, said that in 2020, the annual production of the machinery industry will stabilize and improve, and the growth rate of industrial added value, operating income and total profit will exceed expectations.

Smart and green side by side

In September 2020, China announced to the world: Strive to achieve carbon peaks by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. At the end of 2020, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the "Technical Requirements for the Control of Pollutant Emissions from Non-road Diesel Mobile Machinery", which stipulated the fourth-stage non-road diesel mobile machinery and the technical requirements for the control of pollutant emissions from diesel engines. In the context of stricter environmental protection policies, the construction machinery industry, which is a “larger” of carbon dioxide emissions, is facing daunting challenges. Experts in the industry said that this will speed up the pace of upgrading new and old products of the enterprise, and gradually eliminate high-consumption and low-efficiency equipment, so that the construction site will not see black smoke.

"Green, smart" in the company's annual report has also become a high-frequency word. Zoomlion said that under the framework of the overall strategy of "equipment manufacturing + internet" and "industry + finance", focusing on the main business of equipment manufacturing, the company will accelerate the promotion of digital, intelligent, and green transformation and upgrading, and continue to create growth poles and growth points. . Develop a variety of new energy construction machinery products such as the world's first 25-ton new energy truck crane and pure electric intelligent mixer truck to promote the "greening" of construction machinery. Sunward Intelligent said that the company's intelligent manufacturing will focus on the six directions of intelligent research and development, intelligent products, intelligent construction, intelligent services, intelligent management and intelligent production.

From the perspective of the industry, from the perspective of macroeconomic fundamentals, the construction machinery industry has huge demand potential. In the next five years, China will promote the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the integrated construction of the Yangtze River Delta. The huge demand for infrastructure investment in rail transit, highways, airports, ports, waterways, old city reconstruction, environmental protection, etc. will bring long-term development opportunities for the transformation and upgrading of the construction machinery industry.

Smart and green will promote each other. Yan Lijuan, deputy director of the National Technology Center of Xugong Group, suggested at the two sessions this year to focus on the green and intelligent development of construction machinery research and development. Seizing the development opportunities of new energy construction machinery can not only reduce fuel energy consumption, but also reflect the achievement of carbon peak and carbon neutral goals.

Looking to the future, new energy will occupy a leading position in the energy-saving development of construction machinery, and green and efficient industrial chains and supply chains will grow into new market consumption hotspots. The relevant person in charge of the China Machinery Industry Federation said that key construction machinery companies have vigorously promoted the transformation from construction machinery to "construction machinery +", and transformed into a full range of value chain operations such as mainframes, services, accessories, leases, and overhauls. Editor/Xu Shengpeng