Exploring the coupling relationship of industrial agglomeration and low-carbon economy considering spatiotemporal differentiation: An empirical study in China’s construction machinery industry

Although China’s construction machinery thrives to meet the needs of construction, a number of challenges still remain to be overcome, such as lack of thorough knowledge of regional disparities and several limitations in terms of carbon emissions and economic development. Meanwhile, a low-carbon economy was proposed and implemented in China. This research aims to investigate the differences in industrial agglomeration of construction machineries and further explore the relationship between industrial agglomeration and low-carbon economy. On this basis, spatiotemporal analysis was performed to evaluate the levels of industrial agglomeration in different regions based on the situations of China’s construction machinery industry. Furthermore, this study explored the interaction between industrial agglomeration and low-carbon economy utilizing the coupling coordination analysis method. Results showed that the coupling coordination of the two subsystems was extremely unbalanced in 2006, and it maintained an increasing trend, reaching a relatively high level in 2018. Finally, suggestions, such as establishing a policy guarantee system and implementing variable policies in different regions, were proposed to provide guidelines for the government decision-making and promote the sustainable development of China’s construction machinery industry.