Sales of China's excavators jump 99.5% last year from a year ago

Sales of excavators in China jumped 99.5 percent last year from a year ago as producers tapped the increase in construction activity and also on a rally in the mining industry, official data showed.

Domestic producers sold 140,303 excavators in 2017, the best year since 2011. A total of 130,559 were sold domestically, up 107.5 percent from a year prior, and 9,672 were exported, up 32 percent annually, according to the China Construction Machinery Association.

The sales increase was helped by a rebound in the mining sector along with expanding construction, especially in rural areas, said China Securities Journal which cited an unnamed analyst from Essence Securities.

China produced 3.14 billion tons of coal over the first 11 months last year, up 3.7 percent from a year ago, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

China has also been accelerating infrastructure construction whose investment jumped 20.1 percent over the first 11 months last year from a year ago, according to the bureau.