Equipment makers look west

Meanwhile, other Chinese machinery makers, including Sany Heavy Industry Co Ltd and XCMG Construction Machinery Co Ltd, are also turning to emerging markets such as Southeast Asia and South America, where big construction projects are resulting in huge demand for affordable earth-moving equipment.

In the January-June period, Sany's sales outside China rose two-thirds from a year earlier, with growth in Asia Pacific up more than 90 percent.

In 2008, Zoomlion paid 271 million euros ($370.75 million) for a 60 percent stake in Italian construction machinery maker Compagnia Italiana Forme Acciaio SpA, known as Cifa, the world's third-largest concrete machinery manufacturer.

Industry insiders said that expanding overseas is one way out for machinery companies in China where the market is already saturated.

"In the past few years, we've seen domestic construction machinery makers upgrading themselves with overseas expansion and acquisition deals," said Su Zimeng, secretary-general of the Beijing-based China Construction Machinery Association. "And this is good for the whole industry, as the overseas expansion moves will cushion the impact of the tough domestic market."

The sales volume of Chinese heavy equipment producers was up just 2.98 percent last year to 562.6 billion yuan, well below the 21.7 percent increase registered in 2010.

Song Yang, an analyst at Barclays, estimated growth of between 3 percent and 4 percent for sales of construction machines such as excavators and wheel loaders and flat growth for concrete machinery in 2014.