A unit of the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force held a skills contest where 100 military engineers competed to maneuver vehicles and machines including excavators, loaders, cranes, and forklifts passed various obstacles. (Photo: China News Service)

Sales of excavators rose 68 percent year-on-year in May, according to Chinese industry data. An expert said this shows China's economic growth momentum is continuously improving and accelerating. 

Excavator sales hit 31,700 in May, according to data released by the China Construction Machinery Association on Monday. The surge was not easily accomplished as May is almost the end of the peak sales season. 

Excavator sales in March and April hit record highs this year despite the coronavirus assault. In March, 46,610 excavators were sold in China, up 11.24 percent on a yearly basis and in contrast to a decline of 60 percent in February.

Liugong Machinery Co told the Global Times that its excavator output in April was 4,500 - three times its level during the same month last year. It is exploring a digital revolution in production lines which is able to bring one excavator off the production line in just nine minutes. 

As the government kicks off a new infrastructure project to cushion the fallout from the coronavirus, construction projects are accelerating work, stimulating demand for excavators, Liu Xuezhi, a macroeconomics expert at the Bank of Communications, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"Due to the new infrastructure plan, the number of special bonds this year is much higher than last year. Stabilizing growth and expanding demand drive up excavator sales," Liu noted. 

For example, South China's Guangdong Province issued a special bond worth of 71.2 billion yuan ($10.06 billion) on May 12 for projects in transportation infrastructure, energy, agriculture, forestry and hydraulic engineering. 

As of June 4, the work resumption rate of key projects across China has hit 99.3 percent. 

Liu also gave credit to machine upgrading as the last time China boosted infrastructure projects was a decade ago, and an excavator's service life period is usually between eight and 10 years. 

"China has improved its emission standard for machines, and urged companies to replace old and unqualified excavators this year," Liu noted. 

According to the China Construction Machinery Association, sales of most construction machinery and equipment have been boosted. In April, 23 surveyed loader machine makers in China sold a total of 16,700 loaders, an increase of 31.4 percent year-on-year. 

"The number of newly commenced projects continues to grow. We expect the excavator market to see a better performance in the second quarter compared to the first. In the second half of the year, domestic demand will continue to grow," Qi Jun, head of the association was quoted by the People's Daily as saying. 

Liu said the positive signals boosted his confidence in China's economic recovery. "China's economic growth will recover to the positive territory in the second quarter, rising to between 1 percent and 3 percent, according to our analysis. In the last two quarters of the year, the GDP growth rate may return to above 5 percent, with the possibility of surpassing 6 percent in the last quarter," he said.