Unacea says an encouraging rise in Italian construction equipment sales in 2014 does not negate the need to adopt its suggested measures to encourage healthy long-term demand.
Italian construction equipment market sales increased year-on-year by 11% in 2014, according to new data from the National Institute of Statistics (Istat), processed by Unacea, the leading trade association for Italian construction equipment manufacturers.
Within the overall Istat figures were 6,670 sales of earthmoving machines (+11% on 2013) and 116 sales of road machines (+12%).
But Paolo Venturi, president of Unacea, said that as second half 2014 sales were significantly lower than in H1 2014, there was little to cheer.
“According to the final results of 2014, we were right when we said that prudence was far more essential than enthusiasm. In fact, the +20% observed in the first quarter was nearly halved at the end of the year,” said Venturi.
“What remains is the fall of more than 80% compared to the sales results for 2007 within a current framework of hesitation to adopt the necessary measures: first of all, a national plan to combat the country’s hydrogeological instability, to save human lives and create new jobs useful for the community; secondly, a long-time project of substitution of the obsolete equipment fleet with new generation products."
In the first ten months of the 2014, according to Unacea processed Istat data, export of construction equipment reported sales of €1.522 billion, falling by 4% compared to the same period of 2013. The most significant export decline was in drilling equipment (-33%), followed by crushing and screening equipment (-19%), tower cranes (-14%), concrete equipment (-4%), road machines (-4%), and earthmoving machines (-1%). In contrast, the value of imports rose by 23% to €432 million
World sales of construction equipment in 2014 generated an income of €81 billion, down 2% year-on-year, according to Off-Highway Research. The same study forecast a growth of 5% in 2015 to €86 billion.
