US construction machine exports remain low

According to the US-based 1100 Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), exports of machines from the US remain at a low level. The AEM’s analysis shows that exports of US-made construction equipment were down 24% overall at midyear 2016 compared to the first half of 2015. In all machines worth US$5.65 billion were shipped to global markets.

Europe was the sole region with to see a gain in sales, increasing 2%. South America and Africa led the double-digit declines, according to the AEM report, citing US Department of Commerce data.

For the January-June 2016 period, US construction equipment exports to Canada dropped 23% compared with the same period in 2015, reaching a total turnover of $2.4 billion. Sales to Europe gained 2% compared with the previous year, reaching a total of $898 million. Sales to Central America fell 7% for the first half of 2016 when compared with 2015, reaching a total of $696 million. Sales to Asia decreased 28% for this time period, reaching a total of $664 million. Sales to South America plummeted 49% for the first half of 2016 compared with 2015, delivering a total sales value of $504 million. The US machine sales in Australia/Oceania fell 30% to $294 million while sales to Africa dropped 43% to $220 million.

“For the past 14 quarters, US exports of construction equipment have declined year over year and at the midpoint in 2016, that trend remains unchanged,” said AEM’s Benjamin Duyck, director of market intelligence. “With the global economic malaise, the slowdown in emerging markets and the negative interest rates in several economies’ bond markets, investment is flowing to the US and US stocks, driving up demand for the US dollar, inadvertently affecting our competitiveness abroad.”

The top countries buying the most US-made construction machinery during the first half of 2016 Canada with $2.4 billion (down 23%), Mexico at $561 million (down 7%) and Australia at $273 million (down 29%). Next came Belgium at $204 million and up 39% and Germany at $148 million and up 32%.