Are Chinese excavators cheap?

Excavators are relatively cheap in the Chinese market, mainly due to China’s accumulation of a large number of excavators over the past 40 years. The used excavator market is very active, and the performance of used excavators is not significantly different from new ones.

China has many domestic brands of excavators and a complete, mature supply chain. Both the machines and parts are very affordable, which makes the prices of internationally well-known brands like Komatsu and Caterpillar relatively low in China.

With the reduction of infrastructure projects in China, more and more excavators are retiring from construction sites and entering the used market, which will further lower the overall price of excavators.

For example, a Caterpillar of the same model that sells for $270,000 in the international market can be purchased for just $66,000 in the used market in China. These machines are finely refurbished and look no different from new ones, with performance nearly the same as well.

Affected by the used excavator market, sales of new machines from companies like SANY and XCMG have dropped sharply in recent years. As a result, they had to resort to government intervention to crack down on the sale of used SANY and XCMG excavators in the used market. This has further lowered the prices of excavators from these two brands in the second-hand market.

If you’re looking for the best cost-performance ratio, SANY might be the best option. Buying three SANY excavators in China is equivalent to purchasing one Caterpillar in terms of price. You get three times the efficiency.

However, shipping costs are an issue. For example, we had a customer from French Polynesia, a country in the central Pacific. The shipping cost to transport an excavator from Shanghai to the port of Papeete was $8,611, while the machine itself only cost $23,000—more than one-third of the machine’s price was spent on shipping.

Therefore, we often encounter customers who buy multiple machines at once to reduce shipping costs and achieve the highest overall cost-performance ratio. More overseas customers act as intermediaries, importing used excavators in bulk from China and reselling them in their countries for a good profit.

I work in China’s largest used excavator market. If you’re looking for sources of used excavators, feel free to contact me.