After being on a steady downward trend last year, imports showed an increase in Q1, and this continued in Q2. This recovery has taken levels of trade back to the high levels seen in 2022 and the first half of 2023. In contrast, equipment exports in the second quarter were still below 2023. However, they were still at very high quarterly levels in the first half of the year, well above the levels of trade seen in the previous ten years from 2013 to 2022.
In Q2 2024, Imports of equipment showed an 18% increase in tonnage shipped, a similar level of increase as seen in Q1. This took imports to just under 98,000 tonnes in the second quarter. In value terms, trade also showed a significant increase at 19% above Q1 levels to reach £718 million.
Increasing imports in the first half of the year is consistent with the improving levels of UK equipment sales this year after being on a downward path in the second half of 2023. UK sales of equipment are taken from the UK construction equipment data exchange published by Systematics International. The EU share of UK imports is shown in the table below and is remaining just above 70% this year.
Exports of equipment in Q2 2024 showed a pick-up on Q1 levels for both tonnage shipped and value of shipments. Tonnage shipped increased by 2% in Q2 to reach over 197,000 tonnes, while the value of exports showed a 3% increase to reach £1,185 million. As highlighted above, exports in Q2 were still below the quarterly levels seen in 2023 but were still at very high levels - well above the levels of trade seen in earlier years between 2013 and 2022.
The share of export trade to EU markets is shown in the table below and indicates the continuation of a slight downward trend. The EU share of total exports of equipment remained at 40% in the first half of the year, compared with 41% last year and 44% in 2022.
Overall, the UK has remained a significant net exporter of construction and earthmoving equipment in the first half of 2024, with exports (£2,333 million) 76% higher than imports (£1,322 million). However, this is lower than the 87% level recorded in 2023.
