BEIJING, March 14 (Xinhua) -- China's excavator producers reported flagging domestic sales but shining overseas performance in February, data from the China Construction Machinery Association showed.
China's 24 leading excavator makers sold a total of 9,280 excavators last month, down 50.5 percent year on year.
In breakdown, 6,909 excavators were sold in the domestic market, plunging 60 percent year on year, while exports of the equipment soared 62.5 percent to 2,371.
During the first two months of the year, domestic excavator sales of the 24 producers slid 46.5 percent from a year earlier to 14,667, while their overseas sales surged 48.2 percent to 4,555.
Sales of digging machines are an important indicator of the vitality of an economy as demand is usually backed by growth in mining and infrastructure development.
As the coronavirus epidemic has been largely contained in China, economic normality is steadily returning to the country with an increasing number of companies and factories resuming production. Coupled with newly-announced infrastructure projects across the country, the demand for digging machines will remarkably improve in March and April, according to a research note from the BOC International (China) Co., Ltd.