A recent report from The Parker Bay Company says that the mining equipment market is near a 20-year low.
The company says in its Surface Mining Equipment Index that whether compared to previous reports sequentially (Q2 vs. Q1 2016), year-over-year (Q2 2016 vs. Q2 2015) or vs. the peak levels that were obtained in 2012, the latest reported deliveries are “dismal.”
“Annualising the latest numbers would appear to result in 2016 shipments equal to less than one-quarter’s shipments during 2012. And it ranks among the worst quarters in the past 20 years,” says the company.
“There are a number of mining industry measures that appear to indicate an end to the industry-wide contraction, but these are certainly not yet reflected in equipment shipments tracked by Parker Bay.
The company says on its website that the PBCo Mining Equipment Index is a measure of the quarterly evolution of surface mining equipment shipments worldwide. It relies on data from Parker Bay’s Mobile Mining Equipment Database and encompasses the same product range covered by the Database (all products are included except draglines whose low volume, high $ value, long lead time sales can cause fluctuations that don’t reflect the quarterly changes in the market).
The index utilises the value of equipment as opposed to number of units such that one $10 million excavator has the same weight as five $2 million trucks. Values are not based on the price of each unit as sold but instead an approximate value assigned to machines by size class and product expressed in constant $s (updated annually).
As such, the index does not reflect changes in equipment pricing but rather the overall sales volume.
The base for the index is Q1 2007=100. Quarterly figures are not seasonally adjusted.
