r/ChineseMiniExcavators

Spent the last few weeks visiting excavator factories.

Visiting the manufacturers behind Chinese micro and mini excavators is the only way to truly understand the scale and quality the Chinese are outputting. Honestly it was pretty impressive.

Some factories producing end-to-end machines from raw material to final builds. Some just production lines of purchased materials that are assembled in a warehouse/factory.

The range of quality is quite extreme, one I visited, machines had leaks, and walking around the production line, you could see the poor build quality and practice being applied (despite using "impressive" parts like Kubota engines).

But on the flip side, you had factories with pristine end-to-end production, producing quality machine builds, impressive welding and clean processes to achieve what I would say Western quality standards.

I still believe blind importing is a dangerous game, but being here, on the ground, seeing it first hand gives you better relationships, better understanding of materials and processes and ensures no wall is being pulled over your eyes. That applies to individual buyers or commercial buyers who think they can just buy a container on the cheap and sell it on...

Do you think the Chinese are getting closer to a western standard micro/mini excavator build quality? From my POV it seems like it's getting closer and closer...

(P.S. Thanks to Lion Machines UK for giving me access to their factories to look around.)