France’s near 400 million tonnes a year aggregates market was in good health going into 2022. Hitachi Construction Machinery Sales & Service France SAS (HCSF) reports that French sales were up 12.3% in the year to 31 October 2021, compared to the same 12 months of 2019-2020. Hitachi also notes that rolling 12-month French construction equipment sales (all excavators, wheeled loaders, ADTs, RDTs, dozers, graders, backhoes) were up 7% in November 2021, with November 2021 sales up 9% on the same month of 2020.
“Market demand is still increasing, and the construction equipment market is forecasting an increase in 2022. However, global material cost increases may be risk factors,” says a HCSF’s president Katsuhiro Kanomata. “In France, the forecast market demand increase could be due to the suspension of many projects to due COVID-19 during 2021 and their restart this year. Another factor is that the French government has made a lot of investment to stimulate the French economy.”
HCSF says the new COVID-19 omicron variant has been spreading in France and a shortage of manpower at French building and quarry sites may cause problems. Commenting on how omicron is also impacting on original quarrying and construction equipment manufacturers’ operations, Kanomata adds: “Machine supply will not be sufficient to satisfy the demand from the building and quarrying industries. End users may have to accept used machinery or rental machinery instead of new machines. In addition, customers may consider holding on to their equipment for a longer period than planned.”
Hitachi’s large crawler excavators – from the ZX490 upwards – are said by the OEM to be in big demand among French quarrying customers because of their high-quality, productivity and reliability. “HCSF has close relationships with French quarries and can recommend suitable machines to end users, and together with the local authorised Hitachi dealer, support customers directly,” says Kanomata.
HCSF says France has the highest number of Hitachi CTA (clamshell telescopic arm) excavators working in Europe. Many ZX350LC-6 CTA and ZX135US-SRF (short-reach front) excavators are said to be heavily involved in the €40 billion Grand Paris Express project, the largest transport project in Europe and France’s biggest current infrastructure project.
GlobalData, a leading business market intelligence consultancy, expects the French construction industry to have grown by 10.5% in 2021 (final figures still to be announced), registering an annual average growth of 2.2% between 2022-2025. GlobalData says the sharp growth in 2021 was mainly driven by the very low starting base in the previous year, particularly in the second quarter. The industry’s output over the forecast period will be supported by government spending in infrastructure, notes GlobalData, particularly in preparation for the summer Olympic games in Paris in 2024. The French government plans to spend €6.8 billion to upgrade the country’s infrastructure by 2024.
GlobalData reports that long-term growth in the construction industry will be also driven by the government’s plan to invest €80 billion (US$94.4 billion) on transport infrastructure between 2018 and 2037. The same source notes that work is progressing on the €31.7 billion Grand Paris Express project.
With its 68 new stations and 200 kilometres of additional tracks, Grand Paris Express’s rapid transit lines will create a ring route around Paris (line 15) and lines connecting developing neighbourhoods (lines 16, 17 and 18). Additionally, Grand Paris Express also involves the extension of existing metro lines. Its four new lines circle the capital and provide connections with Paris’s three airports, business districts and research clusters. It will service 165,000 companies and transport two million commuters daily.
The start of this year saw a big deal in the French building materials market with news that Holcim had entered an agreement to acquire PRB Group, France’s biggest independent manufacturer of speciality building solutions, with annual sales of around €340 million.
PRB Group offers a broad range of high-performance building solutions, from coatings and insulations to adhesives and flooring systems with advanced energy efficiency and renovation solutions. With its leadership in sustainability and eco-design, PRB Group is a leading partner to support France’s new regulation (RE2020), advancing energy efficiency in buildings.
PRB Group’s products and solutions are highly complementary to Holcim’s and expand its reach in the high-growth repair and refurbishment market. PRB Group’s broad footprint covers the entire French market with more than 700 people and state-of-the-art facilities, including its Research & Development (R&D) Centre, five manufacturing sites and 26 warehouses, as well as 1300 distributors.
Speaking after the January 2022 announcement of the PRB Group deal, Jan Jenisch, Holcim CEO, said: “We are off to a strong start to the new year, on our way to welcoming the PRB Group into the Holcim family. This is another exciting step in the expansion of Solutions & Products, advancing our Strategy 2025 – Accelerating Green Growth. I am highly impressed by the outstanding achievements of the Laurent family as well as by the expertise and passion of the entire PRB team. I look forward to warmly welcoming all employees into Holcim and to invest in our next era of growth together, with a continued focus on innovation, sustainability and branding.”
Jean-Jacques Laurent, president of PRB Group, said: “I am excited that PRB is on its way to joining the Holcim family. As a long-standing and trusted business partner of ours, this is a natural next chapter for us. With both companies sharing the same vision and values, together we can accelerate our growth strategy. Like PRB, Holcim is focused on driving the circular economy and leading the way in sustainable construction. With Holcim’s leadership in this sector, we know that our company will be in good hands to reach its next level of performance.”
Founded in 1975, PRB Group has grown to become France’s largest independent manufacturer of speciality building solutions. Its innovation-driven portfolio ranges from coatings and insulations to adhesives and flooring systems, with a strong position in premium segments, from energy efficiency to repair and renovation. An established leader in sustainability, PRB Group’s state-of-the-art R&D centre is constantly innovating for eco-design and easy-to-use high-performance products. With its ‘Responsible and Sustainable’ line, it offers the industry’s first and only complete range of speciality building solutions with a reduced carbon footprint in France. With the French government allocating €7.5 billion to low-carbon construction in its stimulus plan, the housing renovation market has the potential to grow by 18%, establishing a strong growth platform for PRB.
The acquisition will advance Holcim’s Strategy 2025 – Accelerating Green Growth to expand its Solutions & Products business to 30% of group net sales by 2025, entering the most attractive construction segments, from roofing systems to insulation and renovation. The transaction is in line with Holcim’s commitment to strict financial discipline and is subject to regulatory clearance and works council consultation in France. It is expected to close in Q2 2022.
Metso Outotec is a leading global crushing and screening equipment manufacturer with a big presence in the French quarrying and construction markets.
François Wintergerst, Metso Outotec’s vice president sales & service region, South Europe and North Africa (SENA), believes that equipment sales are being driven more by investment in machine change-outs. “With the arrival of the European Norm EN 1009 standard, health and safety is becoming another key investment factor for all stakeholders. The main stakeholders are also increasingly environmentally sensitive to noise, dust, power consumption, and other issues.”
Wintergerst says France is still a country where fixed plant installations are dominant in the quarry business, with mobile crushing and screening solutions mainly limited to recycling and contractors.
He adds: “The organisation of the quarry business is based on administration authorisation for a length of 20 to 30 years, providing the opportunity for producers to invest in highly efficient and industrial plants where HSE, dust treatment, ergonomics and noise treatment are integrated directly in the design.
“The biggest installations are with hard rock in the western part of France, or with limestone in north of France. The south is mainly a combination of smaller installations.
“Metso Outotec, through the development of new machines sizes, low energy consumption or environmentally friendly mobiles and crushers, can accompany and satisfy the producers’ requirements to classify end products and thus help them achieve their own HSE and environmental targets.”
Wintergerst notes that Metso Outotec is supporting aggregates producers involved in a variety of major French infrastructure projects, including the Grand Paris Project ahead of the 2024 summer Olympic Games in Paris. “There’s also a growing need to satisfy population expansion in the western and southern areas of France,” he explains. “Many of these infrastructure projects operate in urban environments, and this is an important factor for developing our recycling business.”
Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) is another major off-highway equipment maker with a significant French market presence.
David Forget & Rémi Teysseire, Volvo CE France product managers for wheeled loaders/articulated haulers and excavators, respectively, echo HCSF president Katsuhiro Kanomata in highlighting how COVID-19-linked disruption has lengthened machine manufacturing and delivery time due to the unavailability of some components such as semiconductors. “We believe that in 2022 the [French] market will continue to increase but at a lower pace,” the pair forecast.
Forget says French quarrying customers are particularly keen on the Volvo L150H2 wheeled loader. “It is a 23-tonne machine mainly used for trucks loading and aggregates storage applications. It’s capable of loading a 27-tonne truck in just three passes,” he explains.
“Regarding articulated haulers, the Volvo A40G2 is the machine of choice for quarries, as its 40-tonne payload is well suited to most French customers. It’s used for transport between the quarry face and the primary crusher or for aggregates storage applications.”
Teysseire says the most popular Volvo CE excavators in France are the 40-tonne EC380E and 50-tonne EC480E. “These machines can fit a bucket sized from 2.3m³ to 3.3m³ which is a good size to fit with most of the articulated haulers. These 40-50-tonne machines are perfectly adapted to medium-size quarries.”
Forget and Teysseire say that Volvo CE, through its dealer in the Trappes area of Paris, is supplying machines to the Grand Paris Project. “Another major construction site will soon be starting up, the Seine Nord Europe Canal, and Volvo CE will have a place there to supply its range of heavy machinery,” they add.
While COVID-19-induced supply chain issues remain in the French aggregates and construction and quarrying equipment markets, government and private investment is flowing, creating attractive commercial opportunities in 2022. AB
