Hitachi Construction Machinery, Japan’s second-largest heavy-equipment manufacturer, said this week that Chinese demand for excavators is likely to decline in the first half of 2012 as monetary tightening slows construction exports, according to Businessweek.com. Hitachi CEO Michijiro Kikawa told BW that he expects sale of excavators industrywide in China to decrease 30 percent in the year to March 31 and doesn’t expect growth before mid-year.

Kikawa said Hitachi is focusing more on the mining segment, which has fewer manufacturers, and that the company hopes to gain a 30-percent market share for large mining trucks by 2018 and will boost its manufacturing capacity of mining excavators in Japan.