According to statistics from the China Construction Machinery Industry Association (CCMIA), the average monthly operating time of major construction machinery products reached 80.7 hours in September 2026, up 3.32% year-on-year and 8.45% month-on-month.
The data indicates a clear month-on-month improvement in equipment utilization, although operating rates across several product categories remained mixed.
Average Monthly Operating Hours
In September 2026, the average monthly operating hours of major construction machinery products were as follows:
- Excavators: 61.6 hours
- Loaders: 110 hours
- Truck cranes: 83.7 hours
- Crawler cranes: 73.3 hours
- Tower cranes: 47 hours
- Road rollers: 26.7 hours
- Pavers: 32 hours
- Rotary drilling rigs: 71.9 hours
- Off-highway mining dump trucks: 177 hours
- Concrete pump trucks: 34.1 hours
- Concrete mixer trucks: 98.8 hours
- Forklifts: 105 hours
Among these categories, off-highway mining dump trucks recorded the highest average operating time at 177 hours, followed by loaders and forklifts.
Monthly Operating Rate Reaches 52.4%
The average monthly operating rate of major construction machinery products stood at 52.4% in September 2026.
This represented a 2.73 percentage point decline year-on-year, but an increase of 1.48 percentage points month-on-month.
Operating rates by product category were:
- Excavators: 51.4%
- Loaders: 57.8%
- Truck cranes: 51.8%
- Crawler cranes: 48.6%
- Tower cranes: 45.0%
- Road rollers: 32.2%
- Pavers: 39.5%
- Rotary drilling rigs: 43.2%
- Off-highway mining dump trucks: 50.7%
- Concrete pump trucks: 31.0%
- Concrete mixer trucks: 39.8%
- Forklifts: 64.7%
Forklifts recorded the highest operating rate at 64.7%, followed by loaders at 57.8%.
Market Activity Improves Month-on-Month
The September data suggests that construction machinery activity improved compared with August, as both average operating hours and overall operating rates increased month-on-month.
Higher utilization among loaders, forklifts, mining dump trucks, and other equipment categories reflects continued demand from infrastructure, logistics, mining, and industrial applications.
However, the year-on-year decline in the overall operating rate indicates that market recovery remains uneven across different construction machinery segments.
