In March, CMI improved from the previous month. The traditional peak season for construction machinery is approaching.

In January and March, the CMI index was 103.32, up from the previous month. According to artisan and customer construction machinery data, CMI, China's construction machinery market index, was 103.32 in March 2020, down 27.21% year on year and up 6.20% month on month (according to CMI judgment standard, CMI dropped slightly above recession point 100, and the market was still affected by the epidemic in the short term, but the downward trend was weakened).

Compared with the year-on-year growth rate of excavator output and CMI trend in each month, the year-on-year growth rate of excavator output and CMI index trend are basically consistent. In March 2020, the CMI index rebounded from the previous month, and the year-on-year growth rate of excavator production is also expected to increase in March 2020.

Second, from January to February, the growth rate of various investments at the demand side of construction machinery slowed down significantly. In terms of fixed investment, from January to February 2020, the national fixed asset investment (excluding farmers) was 333.23 billion yuan, down 24.5% year on year and 27.38% month on month. From January to February 2020, the national investment in real estate development was 101.15 billion yuan, down 16.3% year on year. From January to February, the housing construction area of real estate development enterprises was 6942.41 million square meters, up 2.9% year on year. From January to February, 103.7 million square meters of housing were newly built, down 44.9% year on year. Real estate development enterprises purchased 10.92 million square meters of land, down 29.3% year on year. From January to February 2020, infrastructure investment dropped 30.3% year on year. Among them, the mining industry dropped 3.8% year on year, the smallest drop in investment demand. The poor performance on the demand side is also reflected in the production and sales volume of all kinds of mechanical equipment. According to the industry statistics of China Construction Machinery Industry Association, 24 mainframe manufacturing enterprises included in the statistics from January to February 2020 sold 19,222 sets of various mining machinery products, up -37.0% year on year. Sales volume in the domestic market was 14,667 units, up -46.5% year on year. Export sales volume was 4555 units, up 48.2% year-on-year. According to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the output of excavators from January to February 2020 was 27,629 units, down 35.7% year on year. Third, the impact of the epidemic is gradually weakening and the traditional peak season is approaching. Mysteel statistics show that as of March 26, the return rate of industrial enterprises above the scale of 27 provinces and cities exceeded 90%, and the return rate of workers from Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Hunan, Chongqing, Xinjiang and other provinces exceeded 90%. Major projects have also started in various places.

As of March 18, nearly 90% of enterprises in the machinery industry have resumed work, and 90% of enterprises in the machine tool industry have resumed work (79% of employees). As of March 16, Sany Group, a leading enterprise in the construction machinery industry, had a return to work rate of 99.46%. According to information from all parties, the construction machinery market in China was obviously affected by the Spring Festival and epidemic situation from January to February. By March, the impact of the epidemic on the construction machinery market was gradually weakening, and the traditional construction machinery sales peak season was approaching.