Global and China Elevator Industry Report, 2019-2025

About 800,000 elevators were sold across the world in 2018, up 1% from a year ago thanks to the robust demand from China, India and the United States, and the ownership of elevators rose to virtually 15.3 million sets in the year. The global sales of elevators continue an uptrend and will expectedly reach 810,000 sets in 2019 with a year-on-year increase of 1.3%.

Nowadays, the global elevator market is highly concentrated and firmly dominated by the giants like Otis, Schindler, Kone and ThyssenKrupp, and four of them held a combined 64.4% share of the world’s elevator market in 2018.

On a regional basis, Asia-Pacific is a region where elevators are massively produced and consumed, and China has been the largest producer and consumer of elevators in the world. Well-known elevator brands have already established either exclusively funded or joint-stock companies there.

In 2018, approximately 485,000 elevators were sold in China, a 1% rise from a year earlier alongside the burgeoning demand from the real estate sector and rail transit, and sharing 60.6% of the global total. It is expected that in the forthcoming years China’s elevator sales will continue to grow steadily under the drive of old buildings to be equipped with elevators, population aging, rail transit and real estate development, and the sales figure will jump to 610,000 sets in 2025.

Adjustments are accelerated in the Chinese elevator industry with excess capacity, and competition between elevator makers pricks up and there is an obvious tendency of small players to be forced out of business. Chinese elevator manufacturers consist mainly of Shanghai Mechanical & Electrical Industry Co., Ltd., Canny Elevator Co., Ltd., Guangzhou Guangri Stock Co., Ltd., SJEC Corporation, Shenyang Yuanda Intellectual Industry Group Co., Ltd., Zhejiang Meilun Elevator Co., Ltd., and IFE Elevators Co., Ltd., among which Shanghai Mechanical & Electrical Industry Co., Ltd., Canny Elevator Co., Ltd., Guangzhou Guangri Stock Co., Ltd. enjoys higher sales at least 10,000 sets/year apiece. In 2018, Shanghai Mechanical & Electrical Industry sold a total of 80,753 elevators and swept the largest 16.7% share in China

Chinese elevator maintenance market is developing by leaps and bounds with the growing ownership of elevators at home. If 5.5 million elevators in operation in 2018 and a maintenance cost of RMB8,000 per set in China are taken into account, the Chinese elevator maintenance market is currently worth RMB44 billion, a figure projected to surge to RMB64.8 billion in 2025 with the steady growth of new elevator market.

The Chinese players represented by Shanghai Mechanical & Electrical Industry Co., Ltd., Canny Elevator Co., Ltd., Shenyang Yuanda Intellectual Industry Group Co., Ltd., IFE Elevators Co., Ltd and Dongnan Elevator Co., Ltd. have forayed into the elevator installation and maintenance areas, particularly Shanghai Mechanical & Electrical Industry’s revenue from installation and maintenance services as a percentage of more than 30% in its total revenue.