Production of road construction equipment in Russia rises 19% in 2023 to 90 bln rubles - Rosspetsmash

MOSCOW. Jan 24 (Interfax) - The production of Russian road construction equipment in 2023 increased 19% in value to 90 billion rubles, the Russian Association of Manufacturers of Specialized Machinery and Equipment (Rosspetsmash) said.

Rosspetsmash data combines statistics from enterprises producing 80% of the total volume of road construction equipment made in Russia.

The domestic shipment value of this equipment last year increased 15% to 84 billion rubles. There was a 2.1-fold increase in unit sales of pipe-laying cranes, Rosspetsmash said. Additionally, sales of backhoe loaders rose 63%, loader cranes increased 35%, excavators rose 29%, road rollers increased 21%, and mini-loaders were up 12.5%. However, unit sales of telescopic loaders decreased 34%, crawler bulldozers were down 17%, motor graders dropped 12%, frontal loaders decreased 6%, and truck cranes dropped 5%.

"Production and shipments of road construction equipment were positively influenced by high volumes of construction and the implementation of large-scale infrastructure projects. Meanwhile, one of the industry's main problems is aggressive imports," the association said.

Rosspetsmash data show that road construction equipment worth 440 billion rubles was imported into Russia in 2023 (+58% YoY). "As a result, a number of key segments of domestic road construction equipment showed negative dynamics. Imports dominate in segments such as motor graders, excavators, road rollers, front loaders, and asphalt mixing plants. Foreign manufacturers' share of this equipment can vary from 65% to 94%," the association's analysts said.

The association said that due to more favorable production conditions and government support, Chinese manufacturers offer lower prices, which are often "on the edge of profitability or even below it." Rosspetsmash said, "Russian factories are also faced with the lack of domestic production of several key components, or a low level of availability that cannot satisfy existing demand. Factors such as expensive metal, prohibitively high loan rates and high taxes lead to additional production costs," Rosspetsmash said.

The Association traditionally states the need to increase financial support for the industry through grants to manufacturers, as well as tax and credit benefits, and sees ways to protect the Russian market. In particular, Rosspetsmash proposes to continue to gradually revise equipment recycling fee rates, as well as to apply technical regulation in order to monitor the integrity of the certification of imported equipment and prevent low-quality imports from entering the market.