Stones from other hills, can learn. China's construction machinery industry is in a critical period of development. It is necessary to draw on foreign development experience. The Japanese construction machinery industry experienced a complex process from scratch, from weak to strong, from imitation to innovation. These include the imitation of foreign production technologies and OEM production at the beginning of the industry. They also include the internationalization, technical output, and sales of the sales market, accompanied by the expansion of the Japanese construction machinery industry's production scale and market, and the enhancement of independent innovation capabilities. The monopoly advantage that can be obtained.

The development history of Japan's construction machinery industry is closest to that of China. A reasonable use of the development model and experience of the Japanese construction machinery industry to combine it with China's national conditions can provide reference for solving some problems in the current development of China's construction machinery industry. Therefore, this newspaper is specially appointed by the Secretary-General of the China Construction Machinery Industry Association Mining Machinery Branch, Li Hongbao, to write a series of articles on the rise of the Japanese construction machinery industry to the readers.

The history of Japanese construction machinery was based on the national reconstruction after World War II and began with the import of construction machinery from overseas. However, after more than 50 years of development, it has not only met domestic demand, but also has actively expanded overseas markets and increased exports through various manufacturers. Today, it has grown into an international second largest engineering machinery manufacturing powerhouse in the world. Reviewing its development model and experience, six factors have contributed to the rise of today's construction machinery.

Production Factors: Demographic Bonus + High-Quality Talent Japan's demographic dividend began around 1930–1935, ended in 1990–1995, and lasted for nearly 60 years. In 1950, the proportion of Japan’s working-age population was 59.7%, which exceeded 68% in 1965. The proportion of the population over the age of 65 as a population liability to the total population did not exceed 10% until 1985.

While Japan’s demographic dividend continues for a long time, it is a significant increase in Japan’s high-quality talent. In 1961, the number of students in Japan's science and engineering department was 28,737, and in 1973 it reached 80,619, an increase of about two times. In the early 1970s, among Japanese university graduates, the number of engineering graduates per million people was twice that of the United States, three times that of Britain and France, and in 1959 Japan was only two-fold for the United Kingdom and France. About one. The highly qualified and abundant working-age population provides sufficient human resources for the rise of Japanese construction machinery.

Demand conditions: alternating relays between internal and external markets In the 1950s and 1970s, high fixed asset investment in Japan drove the rapid growth of domestic demand for construction machinery. The domestic market was the leading market for Japanese construction machinery. During this period, Japan’s construction machinery completed the process of import substitution, and continuous technological innovation enabled most of the construction machinery products to be domestically produced and reached the international advanced level, which laid the foundation for the export development and globalization of Japanese construction machinery in the later period. Excellent foundation.

With the end of Japan’s urbanization process, the domestic market demand power is gradually weakening, and exports have become the main force driving the growth of Japanese construction machinery. Due to the superior quality and performance of Japanese construction machinery, hydraulic excavators, small excavators and other products are also very suitable for the specific needs of Europe and the United States and other high-end consumer markets. Therefore, under the spur of North American and European markets, the export of Japanese construction machinery has greatly increased.

After entering the 1990s, China, Southeast Asia, and other emerging market economies have entered a period of rapid growth. Coupled with the ever-increasing trade friction with Europe and the United States, the Japanese construction machinery export market has gradually shifted to developing countries such as China, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Japan’s construction machinery has achieved rapid growth in response to domestic demand, European and American markets, and emerging markets.

Corporate strategy: technological innovation and efficiency improvement are the same theme In the process of the rise of Japanese engineering machinery, technological innovation and efficiency improvement have been carried through. Japan’s construction machinery uses the post-war countries’ vigorous investment in infrastructure construction and actively introduces foreign advanced technologies to absorb and re-innovate. After more than 10 years of development, most of Japan’s construction machinery has achieved localization, with the exception of super-large and special ones, and has reached internationally advanced levels in terms of performance, durability, and reliability.

In addition, the efficient management within the company and the improvement of production efficiency are also important development strategies for Japanese construction machinery companies. In the latter half of Japan’s industrialization, efficiency improvement is an important way to absorb the pressure of rising costs and the appreciation of the yen.

Parts and financing leasing have become two magic weapons to a certain extent. To a certain extent, the core competitiveness of Japanese construction machinery is derived from the core competitiveness of key components of construction machinery. Parts and components are the most value-added and competitive parts of construction machinery. Japan's Komatsu, Hitachi Construction Machinery and other international construction machinery manufacturers can produce almost all of the key components, and parts of high quality, outstanding technology, is an important source of its lucrative profits.

Taking the hydraulic components of the most important components of construction machinery as an example, we can find that the development process is consistent with the development of Japanese construction machinery. From the 1950s to the 1970s, Japan’s construction machinery grew rapidly, and Japan’s hydraulic components also developed rapidly during this period. The average annual growth rate of shipments was about 20%. From 1970 to 1978, the value of hydraulic component shipments and total output value of construction machinery, the use of hydraulic components in the field of construction machinery has been maintained at about 5%.

Japan's construction machinery finance leasing industry was founded in the 20th century 50-70s of the rapid growth of construction machinery. The prosperity of construction machinery prompted the rapid development of the financial leasing industry for the birthday of this construction machinery, and the development and expansion of the finance leasing industry also promoted the continuous development of Japanese construction machinery. Both depend on each other.

Japanese construction machinery sales to the finance and leasing industry have been relatively stable, and its proportion of domestic sales revenue of the Japanese construction machinery industry has also remained at around 30%. In the traditional leasing industry in Japan, construction machinery leasing has always occupied the most important position. The scale of business operations accounts for more than 50%, and in recent years it is as high as 80%. In 2008, the operating scale of Japan's traditional leasing industry was 147.92 billion yen, and the scale of construction machinery leasing business was 1147.03 billion yen, accounting for 76.6%. (The data here is the statistics of the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry).

In the downstream industries of the traditional leasing industry, construction companies such as real estate, railways, and highways are the largest demand users, with demand accounting for more than 70%. As Japan's total social construction investment has decreased year by year, this has increased the dependence of the construction industry on the leasing industry year after year, and this is largely due to the increased reliance on construction machinery leasing.

The government’s strong support for industrial policies The Japanese government has played a major role in the global rise of Japanese construction machinery. Japan’s construction machinery is rapidly completing import substitution under the support of a series of industrial policies of the Japanese government, and then expanding into exports and eventually supplying the world. For example, in the 50s to 70s of the 20th century, the Japanese government successively introduced a series of infrastructure construction plans, such as power development, road construction, and railway construction, and domestic fixed asset investment has increased substantially. At the same time, the Japanese government established guidelines for the cultivation of domestic construction machinery, introduced incentives for the mechanized construction of official projects directly under the Ministry of Justice, and required laws and regulations such as mechanized construction to participate in public works, and effectively promoted the mechanization of construction and construction from macroeconomic policies. And the localization of construction machinery. Demand for construction machinery has also been growing during this period.

Under the vigorous promotion of the Japanese government’s mechanized construction of construction projects, Japanese construction machinery has experienced rapid growth. At the same time, the labor productivity of Japanese construction projects has also increased dramatically, with an average annual growth rate of approximately 13%, and the subsequent average annual growth rate for more than 20 years is only About 1%.

Opportunities for upgrading crisis growth industries From the late 1960s to the 1970s, Japan's machinery manufacturing industry faced a series of unfavorable factors such as two oil crises, rising costs, and appreciation of the yen. The increase in costs, the slowdown in global economic growth, and the accelerated appreciation of the yen have directly contributed to the growth in sales revenue and profitability of the Japanese machinery manufacturing industry. It has also weakened the export competitiveness of the Japanese machinery manufacturing industry.

However, it is also the oil crisis, rising costs, and appreciation of the local currency that have promoted the successful upgrade of Japanese construction machinery, and thus laid a solid foundation for Japanese construction machinery in the global construction machinery industry.

Take bulldozers, hydraulic excavators and loaders as an example. Japan’s high-margin hydraulic excavator shipments accounted for 38.2% of sales in 1971 to 68.20% in 1977. Low-value bulldozers and loaders, respectively, were used. From 31.54% and 36.92% to 17.81% and 13.99%.

At the same time, the structure of export products has been continuously optimized. Exports of high-value-added products such as hydraulic cranes and hydraulic excavators have grown rapidly, while low-margin products such as track-type tractors have decreased significantly.

After carefully analyzing the export situation of Japanese construction machinery from 1965 to 1980, we can clearly see that the proportion of export revenue to industry sales revenue has increased from 2.4% in 1965 to 28.2% in 1980. At the same time, judging from the proportion of export of construction machinery to Japan’s total machinery manufacturing exports, the proportions of the two oil crises during 1973–1974 and 1978–1979 are on an upward trend, while agricultural machinery and textile machinery are different. The degree of decline.

The reason behind the Japanese engineering machinery's ability to maintain its competitiveness in the midst of difficulties is that it has achieved industrial upgrading through continuous independent innovation. Industrial upgrading has promoted the optimization of product structure. The result of product structure optimization is that the composition of high value-added products is significant. The increase in margins has led to a rebound in profitability and adaptation to changes in overseas market demand.