Unlike other construction machinery products, wheeled excavators have only some significant product features, but can reflect their own product characteristics in many aspects. At the same time, mobility, flexibility, ease of transition, rapid switching of multiple working devices, and powerful features have all determined that wheeled excavators can give full play to their role in site construction.

China's wheel excavator market share is low

“At present, there are about 10 companies that manufacture wheeled excavators in China, and the technology of domestic machines has made some progress, but the scale of development is still very small. According to the latest statistics, the market share of wheeled excavators in China is 0.8%. 1.3% In recent years, the sales volume of domestic wheeled excavators has fluctuated around 1,000 units, and the growth rate is not stable. At the same time, the domestic wheeled excavator market is dominated by Korean brands, grabbing 90% of the market share, domestic brand market The occupancy rate is relatively low.” The Deputy Chief Engineer and Researcher of National Engineering Machinery Quality Supervision and Inspection Center Miao Pengyuan introduced the development of wheeled excavators in China on May 13th.

When talking about the future development of wheeled excavators in China, Miao Pengyuan said: "Wheeled excavators have a market share of only 0.8% to 1.3% in China and are still very low, but they have a market share of 30 in South Korea. From 3% to 35%, it is indeed not an easy task to predict the future capacity of wheeled excavators in the Chinese market. Since the reform and opening up, there has been a certain gap between the level of development in China's coastal areas and South Korea, but this gap is not The gap between the Midwest and the West is obvious. In another 30 years, the proportion of wheeled excavators in China's coastal areas will be the same as that of developed countries, but it may take 30 years to reach this proportion in the Midwest."

Wheeled Excavator Promotion Should Target Rich People

Wheeled excavators are currently used mainly in municipal maintenance projects, laying of drainage pipelines, water conservancy construction, transportation construction and rapid repairs, material excavation, removal, demolition, and greening.

Miao Pengyuan believes that the wheeled excavator, as a supplement to crawler excavators, is itself an auxiliary equipment and does not have a dominant position. However, with the advancement of urbanization, wheeled excavators will play a greater advantage. Due to its low efficiency and poor stability, it is not suitable for a large number of earthworks and is only suitable for maintenance work. It is similar to the “two busy” role. However, the lifting function it has is "two busy" cannot be replaced. In addition, the diversification of work devices will also provide good support for the maintenance of wheeled excavators. He believes that wheeled excavators belong to niche products. Only by improving stability, work efficiency and safety performance, and strengthening the differential configuration of work devices, can we expand the scope of its working conditions and increase market share.

At the same time, Miao Pengyuan has also worked for wheeled excavator manufacturers. He said humorously: "The wheeled excavator is a machine used by the rich. It has high costs, high selling prices, and large expenditures. It is suitable for small jobs and fine work. Therefore, the promotion of wheeled excavators should target rich groups."

Ergonomic advantages of wheeled excavators

Common crawler excavators must rely on trailers for transportation when transiting, and they cannot directly move between sites. One of the biggest advantages of wheeled excavators is the flexibility of the transition. In the use cost of the excavator, the trailer cost is not a small expense, and the wheeled excavator saves this part of the cost.

Miao Pengyuan believes that the wheeled excavator does indeed belong to a relatively large investment in reference to the current market differentiation. However, it is like in the 1980s that motorcycles were expensive means of transport, but by the 1990s, with the gradual popularity of automobiles, motorcycles became a relatively cheap product. With the continuous development of the market, the price of wheeled excavators will be accepted by more people and will gradually replace some crawler excavators. At the same time, from the point of view of total cost accounting during product use, if the cost of fuel and trailers saved by wheeled excavators is taken into consideration, the cost of its use may not be high.

Market segmentation for better development opportunities

Although China is the world’s largest excavator market, people’s focus is often on tracked excavators. Wheeled excavators have always been considered as a supplement to crawler excavators. It stands to reason that this is a bad market, but some well-known wheel excavator manufacturers think that this is an opportunity, which means that there is a greater market space.

So, is the future of wheeled excavators a blue ocean, or is it still necessary to take the niche product route?

When thinking about this issue, we will think of the relationship between the excavator and the loader. In earthwork construction, the loader used to be the most important product on the Chinese market. In recent years, with the continuous development of the industry, the excavator's replacement trend for loaders has become very obvious. The reason for this trend is that the scope of application of the excavator is obviously wider than that of the loader. Also, is the replacement of the loader by the excavator just a simple product replacement? The answer is no.

The early product types of excavators are relatively single, mainly ranging from 20 tons to 25 tons of excavated products. However, with the refinement of the market division of labor, the products have begun to diverge in both large and small directions: the working conditions represented by mines are more The use of large-tonnage, large excavation products and municipal construction as the representative of the working conditions are more favored for small digging products.

The reason why the relationship between the loader and the excavator is to be discussed is that the excavator products will be further refined by following the principle of refined construction and providing more adaptable equipment for different working conditions. Wheeled excavators have been better applied in Korea because of their flexible maneuverability, ease of transition, and less damage to the road surface. South Korea is already the second largest wheeled excavator market in the world.

The development of wheeled excavators in our country has only just begun and is still in cultivation. Miao Pengyuan believes that the vastness of the market in China, although it can not use the market share of South Korea 30% to 35%, but after a period of development, wheel excavator is expected to reach 15% of the market share.

Due to the high-end positioning of wheeled excavators, we must strictly control product quality, enhance spare parts distribution and financing lease service programs, ensure user returns, and enable them to achieve better development in the Chinese market, like the Swiss Army Knife. A tempting product.