Going gets tougher for machinery makers

China's machinery manufacturers are planning to increase exports as a slowing domestic economy crimps demand at home, industry experts said.

At the same time, some companies are also aggressively expanding their overseas presence with mergers and acquisitions, they said. According to data provided by the China Machinery Industry Federation, the machinery sector reported a record trade surplus of $79.1 billion in 2014.

Private machinery companies were the mainstay of the exports from China, shipping products worth $148.9 billion to foreign markets in 2014, a year-on-year growth of 14.35 percent, according to the federation. Exports by State-owned companies stood at about $47.7 billion during the same period. Exports by joint ventures in China took about half share of the total exports.