2011 turnover rise for German construction equipment firms

Turnover in Germany’s construction equipment and building material machinery industry rose by 17% in 2011 to US$16.72billion (€12.6billion). Of the total, US$10.35billion (€7.8billion) was accounted for by the construction machinery sector and US$6.37billion (€4.8billion) by the building materials, glass and ceramics machinery sector. Continued economic recovery in almost all sub-sectors was seen during 2011, though not all at the same speed. Overall, demand for construction machinery worldwide was higher than for building material machinery throughout the entire year. “In 2011 our customers simply invested more again,” said Johann Sailer, chairman of the German Engineering Federation’s Association for Construction Equipment and Building Material Machinery (1331 VDMA Bau-und Baustoffmaschinen), explaining the positive growth in the sector. Sailer said that previously reticent investments as a continuing result of the crisis were now being made up for, especially by plant hire firms. This trend is also set to continue in 2012. Last year, German manufacturers of earthmoving machinery sold more than 30,000units for the first time since 2007. This means the market doubled in just two years. Sales of 11,000 wheel-loaders matched levels last achieved in 1995. Overall, in 2011 the German construction equipment and building material machinery industry sold goods domestically worth US$4.38billion (€3.3billion) – with US$3.25billion of this accounted for by construction machinery. The sales were 19% up on those achieved in 2010. Key non-domestic sales markets in 2011 for German construction equipment and building material machinery were France, Russia, the USA and the world’s largest market China. Compared to the previous year construction machinery exports rose by about 24%. The Russian market, in particular, saw a great boom. Companies were able to sell twice as much as in the previous year. Despite the notable turnover rise in 2011, the VDMA has forecasted a more conservative 5% rise in German construction equipment and building material machinery sales in 2012. The key industry association noted the “major challenge” in 2012 for the construction equipment and building material machinery sectors would be finding ways to cope with ever shorter economic cycles with greater volatility and short delivery times. At the same time, the VDMA claimed the industry is feeling the “extraordinarily heavy” burden on costs due to ever more regulations. It says construction machinery manufacturers still have a “long way to go” to recover from the switchover to the EU’s new Stage IIIB Emissions Standards.