From a regional market perspective, the global demand for excavators is dominated by China, Europe, and North America, accounting for 70% of the total, and this stable structure is expected to persist in the future

Time : 2025-12-25

Since 2024, the domestic excavator market has begun to continuously repair, and the overall development has shown a bottoming out trend. In 2025, China's excavator market enters a new cycle of growth, and monthly sales in the domestic market basically show a positive growth trend, with the increase of more than 10% in July and September, which exceeds expectations.

Similarly, the overseas business of China's construction machinery industry has also gone up, becoming a major growth engine. What are the specific global market demands that are driving this growth? What are the development trends in different countries and regions?

from a regional market perspective the global demand for excavators is dominated by china europe and north america accounting for 70 of the total and this stable structure is expected to persist in the future-extra-18

Global market capacity of over 600 thousand units

China, Europe and North America remained a solid big triangle, accounting for 70% of the total.

In 2021, the global （including China） excavator sales reached a historical peak of nearly 700,000 units；Then fell back to 480 thousand units in 2024; It is expected that the total number of excavators in the world will rise to 520,000 units in 2025, gradually approaching the 2018 level and fluctuating at a high of 500 thousand units.Among them:China, Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific and South Asia remain the top five global markets.

Among them, China, Europe and North America have consistently dominated the global excavator market since 2022. At present, the combined share of these three markets has reached 70%, and it is expected to maintain a relatively stable market share in the future. According to projections:

The Chinese marketwith a 35 %share took the lead . This is due to the domestic construction machinery market bottoming out and the sales of excavators gradually rising .

The European regionfollowed with 19%of the market share。 High interest rates and high construction costs have led to a downturn in residential construction across Europe over the past two to three years, and although the infrastructure sector is relatively active, it is not enough to offset the significant adjustment that this will bring to the construction machinery market in 2024. Despite some improvement in several major countries including Germany and the United Kingdom this year, European construction machinery sales are still expected to decline further by 2% in 2025.The excavator market is also partly affected （the excavator market in Europe accounted for 21.87% of the market in the first half of 2024, with a sales volume of 56,000 units）.

The North American regionaccounted for 16%of the total。 In the first half of 2024, the North American market took the top spot with a market share of 22.7%, and the full year of 2025 is forecast to be only 16%, which is enough to see the significant decline of the North American Market.Sales of North American construction machinery fell by 5% last year. It is expected that the cyclical downturn in the North American market will continue this year, and the inflationary and anti-trade tariff policies of the Trump administration may significantly aggravate the downturn.

Regional differences are evident

Developed countries have a more balanced structure and developing countries have high demand for mining

Due to differences in geographical environment and working conditions, level of economic development and construction demand, stage of industry development and market maturity, labor cost and skill level, culture and use habits, there are significant differences in excavator product structure in major markets around the world.

Developed countries such as Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific have completed infrastructure construction, so the proportion of aircraft is relatively stable. Infrastructure construction in developing countries such as South Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa is entering its peak period, and the proportion of intermediate excavation has increased significantly. Specifically:

2023 Product structure of different regions in

Europe :86.4 % of small excavators , 12.0 % of medium excavators and 1.6 % of large excavators .

North America :80.8 % of small excavators , 16.6 % of medium excavators and 2.6 % of large excavators .

Asia-Pacific :79.1 % of small excavators , 19.0 % of medium excavators and 1.9 % of large excavators .

South Asia :Small diggers 49.1 % , Medium diggers 45.1 % , Large diggers 5.9 % .

Latin America :42.5 % for small excavators , 53.6 % for medium excavators and 3.8 % for large excavators .

Indonesia :66.2 % for small excavators , 20.6 % for medium excavators and 13.1 % for large excavators .

Middle East :Small diggers 5.8 % , Medium diggers 67.4 % , Large diggers 26.9 % .

Africa :7.3 % for small excavators , 75.9 % for medium excavators and 16.9 % for large excavators .

Product structure in different regions in 2024

Europe :84.6 % for small excavators , 13.7 % for medium excavators and 1.7 % for large excavators

North America :Small excavators 80.5 % , Medium excavators 16.7 % , Large excavators 2.8 % .

Asia-Pacific :77.4 % of small excavators , 20.8 % of medium excavators and 1.9 % of large excavators .

South Asia :43.5 % for small excavators , 52.3 % for medium excavators and 4.2 % for large excavators .

Latin America :41.8 % for small excavators , 54.9 % for medium excavators and 3.3 % for large excavators .

Indonesia :59.5 % for small excavators , 33.3 % for medium excavators and 7.3 % for large excavators .

Middle East :7.6 % for small excavators , 73.4 % for medium excavators and 19.0 % for large excavators .

Africa :4.3 % for small excavators , 82.9 % for medium excavators and 12.8 % for large excavators .

The market landscape is very different

The domestic market enters a new upward cycle, and the international market is expected to exhibit high volatility

So far this year, we can clearly sense the very different temperature differences in the domestic and foreign markets.

Since 2024, the domestic market has bottomed out and entered a new round of upward cycle。 With the launch of equipment renewal policies and the construction of major national strategic projects, the domestic construction machinery market is gradually restored.According to the data of China Construction Machinery Industry Association, it is predicted that the domestic market sales will increase by about 19% year on year in 2025, and by 10% in 2026。 The future market is expected to recover moderately and grow steadily.

In terms of products , benefiting from the development of new infrastructure ,small excavators are expected to grow by 9 %；The market is expected to grow by more than 10% in the new cycle.

After more than 10 years of development, China is gradually becoming an important manufacturing base for excavators, and manufacturers fully rely on China's industrial advantages. Exporting Chinese-made products to the world, it is estimated that China's export sales will account for about 27% of the international market (excluding China) in 2025, an increase of more than 10 times in 10 years. The proportion of export sales of Chinese brands in the international market (excluding China) is also estimated to exceed 20%, and there is still some room for development in the international markets.

Let 's look at the international market .In the international market, the sales volume is expected to fluctuate around 400,000 units in the next two years。 It is expected to grow by about 8% in 2025, decline slightly in 2026 and grow slightly in 2027.

It is expected that the share of emerging markets in the overall international market will continue to increase, with Africa and India growing significantly. The mature market will gradually return to normal levels starting in 2026 after a correction in 2024 and 2025.