Following a good start to the new year, the upward trend has continued both in the construction equipment and the building material machinery industry. The sector expects to increase its total turnover by 5% by the end of the year to around 14.6 billion Euros.
Especially for construction equipment manufacturers, business has been much better than expected at the beginning of this year, both in Germany and on the international markets. This is true for all sub-sectors, namely earthmoving, civil engineering, tunneling, building and road construction machines. In addition to the good business development in Europe during the past years, demand is now also picking up in world regions that have performed weakly most recently, like for example China or Russia. The companies are pleased about this simultaneous push but it also presents new challenges for them. Some of them reported having supply bottlenecks on the supplier’s side already.
After a weak 2016, building material manufacturers are now enjoying a considerable upturn of business, mainly coming from Germany and Central Europe. The sector is still a long way from the good levels it had achieved in the years before 2012. A stronger sustainable business development in the building machinery sector is not expected until 2019.
"The unexpected significant good business development is good for us," says Johann Sailer, chairman of the Construction Equipment and Building Material Machinery Association of VDMA (the German Engineering Federation) at the association’s board meeting recently held in Coburg, but he cautioned against excess optimism. In view of the general political and economic climate, the situation could take a turn at any time. "The growth forecast of plus 5% is therefore not cast in stone."
