A few days ago, the reporter learned from the China Agricultural Machinery Industry Association: In the first quarter of this year, the operating income of enterprises above the designated size of agricultural machinery increased by 4.69% year-on-year, slightly higher than 3.30% in the same period of last year. Profits increased by 13.97% year-on-year, and export delivery value increased by 12.11% year-on-year, higher than the growth rate of 2.22% in the previous year.
Ning Xuegui, executive vice president and secretary-general of the China Agricultural Machinery Industry Association, believes that the operating income of the agricultural machinery industry has increased slightly. Apart from the policy of purchasing subsidies and other policies, the main reason is that the volume of stocks has increased at the beginning of the year. After several years of falling cliffs in the industry, the market inventories were low. The backbone enterprises began to stock up for spring plowing. In February, the number of large and medium-sized tractors in backbone enterprises increased by 15.51%. In March, the number of harvester stocks of backbone enterprises increased by 29.96% year-on-year, and the inventory of small tractors increased by 30.46%.
The sub-sectors with large operating income growth are 21.75% for livestock machinery, 9.77% for agricultural and sideline products processing machinery, and 26.09% for water resources-specific machinery. Production of tractors, harvesters, rice transplanters, and other products continues to decline. According to the statistics of the Enterprise Management Committee of China Agricultural Machinery Industry Association, the output of large tractors of backbone tractors decreased by 6.47%, the output of small four-wheels decreased by 1.98%, and the output of walking tractors decreased by 34.66%. The backbone wheat harvester decreased by 2.36%, the corn harvester increased by 7.35%, the crawler rice harvester decreased by 21.09%, and the rice transplanter decreased by 31.23%.
The above data shows that the agricultural machinery industry continues to decline, the main product sales and backbone enterprises have poor business performance, and the downward pressure on the industry is still relatively large. The national spring agricultural machinery and parts exhibition held in March was not as good as the previous year, and it was also a manifestation of the market downturn and lack of corporate confidence.
"Compared with the company's profit decreased by 7.50% in the same period of last year, the profit in March increased by 13.79%, and it stopped falling. The national tax reduction and fee reduction measures played a role in reducing the pressure on business operations." Ning Xuegui said.
However, many agricultural machinery companies still have low profits and difficult operations. In March, 123 tractor companies nationwide had revenues of 11 billion yuan, total profits of 112 million yuan, and profit margins of only 1%, down 51.89% year-on-year. The agricultural machinery market is in a downturn, and the sharp decline in the output of enterprises has a great impact on the profitability of enterprises. Many companies have low capacity utilization rates and high operating costs.
On April 28th, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment once again convened the China Agricultural Machinery Industry Association and other units to discuss the technical requirements for non-road mobile diesel machinery pollutant emission control and to mobilize. Starting in December 2020, agricultural machinery products that do not meet the national four standards will not be produced and sold, and the industry's four-emissions upgrade work cannot be delayed. Enterprise emission upgrades are difficult and time-consuming, requiring a lot of cost and effort. Environmental upgrades will further increase product manufacturing costs and have a certain impact on the market.
Ning Xuegui believes that although there are many favorable policy incentives in 2019, the industry's rebound momentum is still insufficient. Due to the overlapping of various uncertain factors, the industry's low-level operation will continue.