'Recently, several infrastructure projects have been added in Fuzhou. Driven by the start of new projects, the current daily cement shipments have increased from a dozen cars before October to about twenty cars.' Mr. Zhang, who is engaged in cement business in Fuzhou, Fujian, told china securities journal that with the continuous progress of the project construction, it is expected that the cement shipments will increase significantly from the end of October to November.
In the fourth quarter, with the acceleration of a series of major projects, a number of central enterprises have won large infrastructure orders, excavators, operating rates and other related indicators have continued to pick up, and financial 'living water' has accelerated its influx. The industry believes that effective investment in the fourth quarter is expected to continue to expand, and infrastructure investment will continue to accelerate.
A number of enterprises seized large infrastructure orders.
'Recently, we have done a lot of monitoring. The orders of key projects in China, such as energy equipment, petrochemical equipment, mining machinery, construction machinery, CNC machine tools, industrial robots, etc., are increasing substantially, which provide rare opportunities for upstream and downstream enterprises.' Zhao Chenxi, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said recently.
From the perspective of A-share listed companies, a number of construction enterprises have recently won large infrastructure orders.
On October 18th, China Construction announced that recently, the company has obtained a number of major projects, with a total amount of 33.89 billion yuan, accounting for 1.8% of the company's audited operating income in 2021. On the same day, Pudong Construction issued an announcement. Recently, the company's subsidiaries won a number of major projects, with a total bid amount of 1.671 billion yuan. On October 17th, China Railway Construction announced that the company won the bid for 11 major projects recently, with a total project amount of 59.869 billion yuan, accounting for 5.87% of the company's audited operating income in 2021.
The newly signed contracts of construction central enterprises have increased significantly. According to the incomplete statistics of china securities journal reporters, as of October 18th, a total of seven construction central enterprises announced the newly signed contracts in the first three quarters of 2022, with a cumulative total of 5.49 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 16%.
'Combining the operating data of a number of construction central enterprises, it can be observed that the infrastructure sector has made significant efforts.' Sun Weifeng, an analyst of Everbright Securities Construction Industry, said that the prosperity of infrastructure investment continued to heat up.
Related infrastructure indicators are picking up.
With the rising prosperity of infrastructure investment, the related indicators of excavator, operating rate, cement delivery rate and other infrastructure areas have picked up.
As the 'standard' of infrastructure construction, excavator indicators continued to pick up in September. According to the statistics of 26 excavator manufacturers released by China Construction Machinery Industry Association, 21,187 excavators were sold in September, up by 5.49% year-on-year. The sales growth rate of excavators has been in a positive growth range for three consecutive months.
From the perspective of operating rate, infrastructure investment has accelerated. According to the latest data of CCTV Financial Excavator Index, the average monthly operating rate of national construction machinery in the third quarter of 2022 is 64.76%, which is higher than the average monthly operating rate of 53.98% in the first quarter, reflecting the acceleration of infrastructure investment in China. Among them, the operating rate of pavers and road rollers in China started to increase continuously in March, and reached a high point in the third quarter, reflecting the fiery traffic infrastructure in China. The average operating rate of cranes and excavators in a single month in the second and third quarters continued to run at a high level, reflecting that the heat of engineering construction in the whole country has not diminished.
The cement delivery rate can also prove the relative prosperity of transportation and engineering construction. According to the report of China Securities, at the end of September, the demand of domestic cement market further increased from the previous month, and the demand in southern China recovered relatively well, with the shipping rate of enterprises generally reaching 80% to 90%. From the end of September to October, the national average cement shipment rate has been at the highest point this year.
'Around October, major projects started in many places, which led to a rebound in cement demand to a certain extent.' Cai Yanfen, a senior analyst of Centennial Construction Network, believes that as infrastructure continues to play a supporting role, the newly started projects in the early stage will be accelerated, and the amount of cement delivered from the warehouse may continue to rise.
Financial 'living water' has accelerated its influx.
From the perspective of capital, financial 'living water' is accelerating its influx, stimulating infrastructure investment.
On the one hand, policy-oriented development financial instruments continue to exert their strength. Zhou Minyuan, director of China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission Policy Bank Department, said recently that up to now, development banks and policy banks have invested more than 730 billion yuan in policy-oriented development financial instruments.
'Based on the average project construction period of about 3 years and leverage of 5 to 10 times, policy-oriented development financial instruments may drive the growth center of infrastructure investment in the second half of the year up to 10%-15%.' Zhou Guannan, chief fixed income analyst of Huachuang Securities, said.
On the other hand, the balance of special debt has accelerated. According to the arrangement of the executive meeting of the State Council, the local balance limit of more than 500 billion yuan of special bonds will be issued before the end of October. According to the statistics of China Bond Information Network, up to now, nearly 20 regions have disclosed their local debt issuance plans in October or the fourth quarter. At the same time that the balance of special debt is accelerated, the advance approval amount of special debt next year is expected to be released before the end of this year. Recently, the fourth quarter work promotion meeting of the stable economic market proposed that the partial limit of special debt for next year should be issued ahead of schedule according to the law. Wang Qing, chief macro analyst of Dongfang Jincheng, predicted that the partial limit of new special debt will be issued in advance before the end of this year, with a scale of about 1.46 trillion yuan.
'With the acceleration of project approval, the development of policy-oriented financial instruments and the acceleration of the issuance of new special bonds, starting from October, the physical workload of infrastructure will increase significantly. It is estimated that the annual growth rate of infrastructure investment will be about 13%.' Sun Fu, chief macro analyst of Huaxi Securities, said that the growth rate of infrastructure investment will remain at a high level from the end of this year to the middle of next year as the special debt limit is released ahead of schedule next year. Su Duoyong, an analyst in the construction industry of Essence Securities, believes that effective investment in the fourth quarter is expected to continue to expand, and infrastructure investment will continue to accelerate.