The majority of construction equipment companies in Europe are not satisfied with the current business situation. However, industry has hopes that within the next six months things will improve again, since bauma 2013 is expected to stimulate business.
This is one of the major results of the recent Committee for European Construction Equipment (CECE) Business Barometer. The survey’s results show a mixed picture regarding the mood in the European construction equipment sector: for the full year 2013 half of the companies participating in the monthly CECE survey expect an increase in their company turnover while one third sees business to decrease.
3.4% rise in turnover in 2012
While in 2012 the European construction equipment industry increased their turnover by 3.4% reaching a volume of 25 bln €, for 2013 it is expected that the overall sales will stay on this level. European manufacturers are expecting to compensate a predicted drop in European demand of around 4% by increased sales outside Europe.
Workforce remains stable
Accordingly most European manufacturers plan to maintain their regular workforce and only slightly adapt the number of temporary workers. A survey showed that already in 2012 the employed workforce remained quite stable in Europe, with 17% of all participating companies having increased the number of workers while 21% have faced mainly modest cuts. All in all the sector ensures jobs and incomes to over 110,000 persons directly in Europe and to more than further 100,000 persons indirectly in the value chain.
Turkey on the rise
Within Europe the demand in 2012 mirrored the general economic situation of many countries: while in the Scandinavian countries and Germany demand was still growing, the downward slope in Italy and Spain continued with sales decrease of more than 10%. In 2013 only Turkey is supposed to have a growing demand, while all main EU markets including Germany are expected to shrink.
Upward trend outside Europe
Outside Europe most markets are supposed to show an upward trend in 2013.
The European manufacturers expect their major increases in sales in Latin America, North America and Russia. The highest growth rates are forecasted for Africa – however, coming from a still modest level of total demand.
For 2014 the European manufacturers expect that also in Europe customers will start again investing more. Also the Chinese market is expected to further recover, so that all in all signals are set for growth in the construction equipment sector.
