Equipment sales set for record high

Sales of Construction Equipment in Europe Are Expected to reach record levels in 2006, according to the latest report from Off-Highway Research. The forecasting company had originally estimated a -5% decline in sales this year but has now revised its prediction based on strong growth in the first six months.

Off-Highway Research's revised forecast suggests that the construction equipment market will grow +4% this year to take sales to more than 171000 units. “When our annual review is published, respondents have little feel for the short term market,” said Off-Highway Research managing director David Phillips.

“In March this year, the feeling was that sales must moderate in the coming period. After growth of +11% in 2004 and +8% in 2005, it seemed that fleets of machines were renewed and with slow economic recovery, the market must cool down”

Despite the expectation, demand in the first half of 2006 has been much higher than expected and many OEMs cannot meet any new orders until 2007. However, Mr Phillips does not expect the growth to continue into 2007. “We are expecting the market to exhibit a soft landing in 2007, with a decline in sales of around -3%, but this will be partly due to the order backlog from this year,” he said.