INTERMAT 2024 has set the theme of "low carbon", more than 1,000 exhibitors have shown their latest low-carbon equipment, throughout the French exhibition, we can see the development and future development prospects of the European and international construction machinery market.
/// CONSTRUCTION MACHINERY
Text: Today's Construction Machinery
This article is about 3060 words, and the reading time is about 5 minutes
01
Low carbon has become a consensus, and it is eager to get government support
The European Green Deal, announced in December 2019, has become a programmatic document for EU climate policy in the new era, announcing that carbon emissions will be reduced by 60% compared to 1990 by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050. "Low carbon is a political view, but a political point of view, and people can feel the effects of climate change today, and they can see that climate disasters such as floods, typhoons, and tsunamis have caused more harm than before, so the goal of achieving zero carbon emissions by 2050 is also a social need, because there is this social need, there is this political need to reduce carbon emissions." "The people of European countries have always had a high awareness of environmental protection, the Norwegian government has conducted a consumer survey on electric vehicle buyers, and 1/4 of the respondents said that the purchase of electric vehicles is for environmental benefit considerations, and low carbon has reached a consensus in Europe, which is conducive to the promotion of low-carbon construction machinery industry.
Five presidents of the European Building Federation also signed the declaration "4 keys to supporting the decarbonization of construction equipment" at the exhibition, which listed their 4 commitments: the right use of new energy, saving energy, doing a good job, and fulfilling corporate social responsibility. The association will work with businesses to measure, set a trajectory, deliver climate-efficient solutions and support them on a low-carbon path. In Christophe's interview, we also learned that the EU monitors decarbonisation by auditing companies' carbon footprints to ensure that low-carbon efforts are being undertaken, and he also highlighted the key role of batteries and hydrogen in green development.
Various companies have displayed hundreds of new products driven by battery electrification or other new power technologies such as hydrogen fuel, and many exhibitors have also brought a multi-product matrix of batteries, motors, hydrogen storage tanks and other products in the industrial chain, showing solutions for energy supply and storage for the entire industrial chain. Caterpillar brings an advanced energy management system that can keep electric equipment charged and ready for work. Caterpillar says its battery energy storage system (BESS) is designed for quick plug-and-play installation and integration, and is compatible with any combination of diesel, natural gas or renewable energy. BESS offers a comprehensive range of charging ports that are compatible with almost any electric vehicle, with a charging time of around 20-40 minutes. Volvo Penta showcased the company's new battery energy storage subsystem, which includes a high energy density battery system, a thermal management system, a high-voltage cable and a power distribution system. The battery packs in the Volvo Penta subsystem solution have been optimised for industrial use, with excellent charge rates for fast charging and fast discharging. As a result, the subsystem will benefit battery energy storage system OEMs in areas where energy density is a priority, such as peak slashing, energy arbitrage, EV charging, and temporary power demand. Volvo Penta also showcased its electric drivetrain for off-highway applications. The system uses a new cube cell with a 40% increase in energy density, which is comparable to the original flat battery. The energy capacities of the two types are 90 kW·h and 94 kW·h, respectively.
Europe's electrification equipment is still in its infancy, and the domestic exploration of electrification has a certain amount of time, has a certain experience, Liugong's European market sales director said that Liugong hopes to lead the European market electrification change, Liugong brings all-electric equipment but also brings fast charging and high endurance battery packs; The electric reach stacker brought by Sany has the characteristics of safety, stability and energy saving; Lingong Group showcased a full range of electrified products.
There was also an energy transition conference during the exhibition, where battery-powered equipment can cost twice as much as other technologies, government subsidies are a way to help finance the sustainable energy transition, and many discussions at INTERMAT focused on the lack of financial incentives in this regard, hoping that the government will introduce relevant policies, and many electrified devices have low battery life, need to have charging conditions on site, slow charging speed, safety and a series of issues that need to be solved urgently.
02
Intelligence may solve the problem of re-employment of aging in Europe
Europe has a serious labor shortage and population aging problems, as can be seen from the figure, the current aging in Europe will be further aggravated by 2050, the main way to solve the aging in Europe is divided into the development of wisdom pension, the development of education for the elderly; The development of elderly human resources, encourage delayed retirement and reform of the pension system, in which the aging of the labor force will reduce the labor participation rate and labor productivity, the older labor force may not be able to adapt to the high-intensity construction machinery work, and promote the development of intelligence to solve this problem well, but also to promote automation has become a development trend, while unmanned equipment, can also make up for the lack of middle-aged labor.
Christophe, manager of the INTERMAT exhibition, said in an interview that in the next few years, technology will develop very rapidly, but also face more challenges, labor shortage is a big challenge, this exhibition has some unmanned equipment display, this may be a new trend in the future, because we lack the labor force to work on site, so unmanned equipment, maybe a step to solve the labor problem.
In terms of innovation, the INTERMAT Innovation Award is nominated for a series of smart awards, which are judged not only for new products, but also for technological innovations in the true sense of the word. Caterpillar's remote operating platform ensures 100% connectivity to fleet and equipment usage data, allowing customers to transfer data on the platform and obtain monthly reports on baseline and CO2 emissions; Customers have direct access to remote diagnostic services; At the same time, the platform provides personalized predictive maintenance recommendations based on the health data of daily equipment, historical work data, and operating condition data and manufacturer data of the region where the equipment is located, through the use of artificial intelligence, combined with the expertise of the dealer team. Komatsu Smart Construction Europe is developing an affordable, interactive toolset for collecting as-built topographic data, which Komatsu is able to shorten construction time and feedback cycles through the collection and visualization of topographic data. At the same time, driverless cars also appeared at the exhibition, attracting everyone's attention.
03
European attachments are expanding into the Chinese market, and Chinese companies are expanding outward
Attachments have been developed in Europe for nearly 40 years, with an installation rate of more than 95%, with diversification, specialization and other characteristics, but in China, the attachment industry is still in a relatively early stage. For example, in Europe, a skid steer loader with different attachments can handle all the garden construction, but the domestic garden work is still mainly manual; Another example is the milling operation of road maintenance, a skid steer loader with self-leveling milling machine and other attachments, can be fully competent for the daily maintenance of road potholes, such as: milling, cleaning, shoveling process, a machine multi-purpose is vividly played. However, in China, small-scale manual demolition and road closure are basically adopted, and large-scale equipment is used for overall milling. The existing domestic attachment enterprises pursue price involution, many existing general attachments are of poor quality, and European special attachment companies have paid attention to the Chinese market.
At INTERMAT, Stefano Ferrando, Head of the Asia Pacific Region of CMEC, introduced the development and promotion of CMEC attachments in Europe and the outlook for the development of the Chinese market, and he introduced the stable development, large-scale promotion and high penetration rate of attachments in the European market. In 2020, Ximai began to enter the Chinese market, and in 2023, after the epidemic, there will be large-scale development, and at the same time, Ximai has developed exclusive attachments for China, and will focus more on the Chinese market in the future to solve the problems of the past.
In recent years, China is also facing problems such as reduced fertility rate and aging, and it is urgent to promote the process of mechanization. China's construction field is bidding farewell to the "drastic" and transforming to "meticulously crafted", which supports the development of multi-purpose engineering attachments.
This edition of INTERMAT has more than a quarter of the Chinese exhibitors. It brought the latest vehicle equipment, which illustrates the ambition of Chinese enterprises to promote globalization. Mr. Fan Zhide, assistant general manager of Zoomlion Overseas Company, said at the briefing on the construction of INTERMAT that Zoomlion Overseas currently generates 37% of the company's total global revenue, "This is because we have restructured our strategy globally in the past two or three years. Every year we realize that the growth of the global market is very favorable. So now we don't just rely on the Chinese domestic market. For us, we focus more on the global market. This is our strategy. ”
In view of the development of the construction industry in Western Europe is lower than the global situation, the purchasing power of Western European countries for new machines is limited, the export of electric equipment is the general trend of development, for the political turmoil and construction machinery and equipment rely on a large number of imports of Eastern Europe, with greater growth potential, taking Russia as an example, before the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Austria, Germany, Italy and other Western European country brands are important construction machinery in Eastern Europe, after the conflict, Russia's foreign trade partnership has changed, This also brings certain opportunities for the market expansion of the mainland construction machinery brand.
The Chinese market is slowly recovering, but Chinese manufacturers such as XCMG, Sany and Zoomlion are still looking to expand into other markets, and it is no coincidence that so many Chinese OEMs are participating in INTERMAT, but reflect the global ambitions of Chinese companies.
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