Breaker sales

Manufacturers claim the breaker industry has grown dramatically acrossEurope during the recent period of heightened construction activity.

Olli Siltanen, general manager for products at Sandvik Rammer, said all manufacturers have enjoyed a strong market for some time adding that Sandvik has achieved record sales for the past three consecutive years.

There are no hard and fast statistics available for the total number of breakers sold around the globe annually. However, speaking for Atlas Copco, Torsten Ahr said he has tried to obtain such figures.

He explained, “I have asked the various trade associations (the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) and the Committee for European Construction Equipment (CECE)) for data, and asked them to talk to their counterparts around the world to try to get some kind of total global figure. My figures suggest that small, medium and heavy breaker sales total between 60000 and 65000, with small breakers accounting for 45000 – some people believe the figure is higher than this but I don't think that is the case.”

He added CECE claims that European manufacturers sold 26000 breakers during 2006.

“But even this figure is below the actual since at least five or six manufacturers do not report their sales,” Mr Ahr said.

“I have managed to get some figures for Japan that state annual sales for Japanese manufacturers total 16000, so that gives a total of 42000 – but of course this does not include the Chinese, Korean and North American manufacturers, in addition to the missing Europeans – so I think my estimate is a reasonable one,” he added.