Italian sales fall

The italian earth-moving equipment market recorded sales of 5300 units in the first quarter of 2005, a fall of -1,5% compared with the same period of 2004. Comamoter, Italy's association of earth-moving equipment manufacturers, announced the figures during Samoter in Verona, Italy last month.

“It's a small drop which can be taken as [being] in the natural order of things,” said Giuseppe Ferrulli, president of Comamoter. “It is not enough for us to make any substantial change to the forecasts we made in February for increases in the order of +3,7% in 2005 and +0,5% in 2006.”

According to the report, mini-excavators and skid steer loaders had small sales increases of +0,3% and +0,8%, respectively, while sales of telescopic handlers and wheeled loaders gained +3,6% and +7,7%. However, crawler excavators lost -0,8%, wheel loaders dropped -9,9% and backhoe loader sales slumped -13%.

The study also showed that 57% of machines were bought by construction companies, 16% by rental companies, 15% by excavation and demolition contractors, and 6% by mining companies.