In the first quarter of 2013, demand for new construction machinery remained sluggish due to a massive existing market inventory and the limited stimulus effect of downstream infrastructure investment. To control costs and reduce capital tied up in finished goods, major enterprises continued to prioritize inventory reduction and adopted a cautious approach to production. Taking excavators and loaders as examples, cumulative production for the quarter stood at 38,225 and 47,199 units, respectively-year-on-year declines of 32.3% and 14.4%. Notably, the rate of decline for excavator production widened by 10.7 percentage points compared to the same period the previous year, while the rate of decline for loader production narrowed by 6.3 percentage points.
The past two decades have marked the period of most rapid growth in China's urbanization rate, which rose from 27.99% in 1993 to 52.57% in 2012. This rapid rise in urbanization drove a massive surge in demand for construction machinery, serving as the primary backdrop for the "golden decade" of the domestic construction machinery industry. Experiences in countries such as the United States, Japan, and Brazil demonstrate that even after the urbanization rate surpasses 50%, high-speed growth can be sustained for nearly another two decades, only slowing gradually once the rate exceeds 70%. Vigorously advancing urbanization has become a key policy objective for the new administration; a draft of the *Plan for Promoting the Healthy Development of Urbanization (2011–2020)*, led by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), has been completed and is slated for imminent release. It is highly probable that my country's urbanization rate will rise to the 70% level over the next twenty years.
