Sales of construction and mining equipment in South Africa continued to improve in the first quarter of 2018, with new equipment sales reaching levels last seen in the first quarter of 2015.
According to figures released by the Construction and Mining Equipment Suppliers’ Association (CONMESA), a total of 1,542 units were sold in South Africa during the period, an improvement of nearly 100 machines during the same period last year. It also extends the trend that has seen equipment sales inch upwards since the beginning of last year.
CONMESA chairman Lawrence Peters says the move is in line with the association's expectations and predictions at the beginning of the year. He adds that the second quarter should continue a similarly positive trend, but with the uncertainty of volatile exchange rates and rising fuel costs possibly weighing against a sharper increase in sales.
“The recovery has been steady, but slow due to the underlying challenges faced on both the mining and construction sides of the industry. While low commodity prices have weighed heavily on the mining sector the sluggish sales are also because of political uncertainty, as well as unease of the mining charter and its impact on mining investment in South Africa," said Peters.
“On the construction front, we are still not seeing any significant infrastructural projects in the form of headline project and this means that the large and medium construction companies are not buying new machines to the extent that they had previously. Their fleets are being employed elsewhere on smaller projects thereby hindering sales to second and third tier companies."
Along with other executive members of the association, who are elected from member companies within the association, Lawrence represents the large multiagency equipment distributor ELB Equipment, which has exposure in nearly all sectors of the mining and construction industries. His company experience also bears out the findings, where sales are improving across-the-board, rather than pointing to any one sector.
Fellow board member and representative from
He adds the company is also optimistic that construction equipment sales will improve during the latter part of the year as infrastructure projects are launched close to next year’s South African elections.
Dr Samantha Swanepoel of Barloworld Equipment reports that sales are improving across all industries, but says the industry’s improvement is off a relatively low base. She adds that factors such as the implementation of the Mining Charter, as well as negative mining news headlines are still depressing aftersales business and margins.
One supplier who has been negatively affected by the lack of roads developments is
“Until such time as large infrastructure works are awarded the reducing market with increasing numbers of competitors is going to be tough for us and the other established brands,” says Fennell.
