The US' import restrictions on foreign-made drones are causing uncertainty in the construction industry. DJI, a Chinese brand and the world's largest drone maker, has long dominated the skies above job sites, accounting for more than 90 percent of drones used in the sector.

Construction companies across the United States have come to rely heavily on drones for tasks such as site surveys, as they help cut costs, improve decision-making and increase efficiency. The uncertainty over access to DJI's latest models has left many operators scrambling for answers.

"It's the new models that have not been released for sale in the US that regulators are stopping us from purchasing," said Nino Efendic, president of Aerial Prospex, a drone service provider that operates a fleet of 42 DJI drones.

"We're trying to spread the word about what DJI products do and what the industry needs, and advocating for the construction industry in general," Efendic said.

Colin Guinn, founder of Guinn Partners, a contract engineering and consulting firm, said the import restrictions had generated concern and uncertainty across the industry.

"We've just grounded our entire DJI fleet. What does this mean for us going forward? Is this going to be long-term?" Guinn told attendees during a talk at ConExpo, North America's largest construction trade show held recently in Las Vegas.

Over the past decade, DJI has accounted for 95 percent of the US construction drone market, Guinn said. It has solved "some really challenging parts" of drone technology, including the integration of real-time kinematic positioning — a high-precision geolocation technology critical for professional survey work, he said.

Guinn pushed back on suggestions that the solution was simply to build a domestic replacement. "You don't understand how complicated that proposition is. There's so many different technologies that have to be solved for that to happen."

He explained that unlike in content creation, drone data used on job sites must meet surveying standards, requiring ground control points, real-time kinematic or post-processed kinematic positioning, high-quality telemetry, accurate metadata and precise alignment across all images.

'Level of polish'

When switching to regulator-approved alternatives, users would find that those products "are a lot more expensive and heavier", Guinn said."They've got fragmented software stacks, and they just don't have the same kind of DJI level of polish."

Non-DJI alternatives can cost two to 10 times as much for comparable capabilities, according to an analysis by ABJ Drone Academy, a training center in New Jersey. DJI has long benefited from Chinese manufacturing scale and the cost efficiencies that come with it, the analysis said.

One Florida police department was forced to spend $25,000 on a single Skydio drone to replace units that had cost roughly $5,000 each from DJI, it found.

A white paper published on Feb 28 by the Oregon Department of Aviation, based on responses from 25 states, found that federal restrictions on DJI had triggered nationwide disruption, including interruptions to mapping and near-term funding gaps for procuring compliant replacements.

DJI has faced scrutiny in the US for years over so-called national security concerns. In December 2024, Congress passed legislation that required a formal security audit of DJI within a year. No agency conducted the audit by the deadline, leading to DJI and other foreign drone manufacturers being subject to import restrictions by the Federal Communications Commission.

Last month, DJI filed a lawsuit challenging the FCC decision, asserting that the agency exceeded its statutory authority and failed to produce evidence of an actual national security threat.

liazhu@chinadailyusa.com