European construction equipment sees little growth

European sales up... just

Despite the planet slowly crawling out of the global recession and construction projects getting back underway, equipment sales on the continent are only expected to increase by four percent this year.

The figures, reported by specialist consultant Off-Highway Research, are in fact a decrease from the company's review earlier in the year that indicated the sector would see a seven percent growth in sales. However the mid-year review seems to have changed all that.

Speaking to Construction Europe, Off-Highway Research managing director David Phillips said, "The recovery in many markets has been much weaker than was anticipated in March and April. Italy, France, Spain and the UK have not have recovered as fast as we expected. "I think the root of the problem is the lack of business confidence, and there is still that over hang of lots of new machines in the market that were built up in the boom years."

Continent leader

The sharpest growth on the continent is expected to be in Germany, where Off-Highway Research stated that equipment sales appear to be soaring with a rise of 23 percent. However Austria and Ireland are also expected to see strong growth and double-figure percent increases.

While these three markets will see the strongest growth, it is expected that most markets will see some sort of sales increase however Finland and Spain are expected to be flat, while Portugal and Italy are expected to see falling sales. Italy in particular is expected to see a 13 percent decrease in sales.

However it is not all doom and gloom, for next year the Off-Highway Research sees the European equipment market climbing a further 12 percent in terms of sales. It is still far away from the boom of 2007 though....

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