Chinese EV trucks will build the cities of the future

IF YOU think the world is starting to get used to surging sales of Chinese-made electric cars, the next wave of exports is going to be bigger and more powerful.

That’s because the construction machinery giants that grew fat off the country’s property bubble are looking for new markets to offset the downturn at home. Combined with looming electrification, the effects could be quite as dramatic as the other made-in-China export booms which have so troubled trading partners.

Consider Sany Heavy Industry. In 2020, 83 per cent of its business was selling excavators, cranes, concrete mixers and the like to domestic developers. In the space of just four years, China’s property crash has caused its turnover in that market to shrink by two-thirds.