Delegates to the annual meeting of the Construction Equipment Specialist Group of Germany’s Machinery & Equipment Manufacturers’ Association (VDMA) in Frankfurt in February heard that manufacturers have full order books that guarantee capacity utilisation at least until the middle of this year.
A strong year-end surge enabled German manufacturers of construction equipment to increase turnover by 3% in real terms, even though the order intake in this period was down 21% due to a base effect (in 2021 the order intake went through the roof as a result of the economic recovery after the pandemic outbreak).
Global sales of construction machinery fell by 4% in 2022, although this was entirely due to China, the largest market, says VDMA. A mix of the housing crisis and zero-covid policies caused the market there to slump by 43%.
North America and the European home market, on the other hand, grew at double-digit rates despite the supply bottlenecks. In Europe, growth was concentrated in southern and central eastern Europe. The largest markets, Germany, France and Great Britain, were stable.
Joachim Strobel, chairman of the VDMA's Construction Equipment Specialist Group, said: "We are impressed by this positive development, and we can only hope that this trend continues. Our construction equipment sector is currently proving resilient to the energy crisis, inflation and supply chain disruptions."
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