The failure to renew the machinery inventory, Unacoma/Comamoter Massimo Goldoni argued, is a black mark not only for construction companies but also for the efficiency of worksites and the safety of operators
The crisis sweeping the construction industry is resulting in heavy repercussions for construction machinery. Data on sales in Italy in the first half of 2011 signal a steep drop-off for all types: traditional machinery, that is, dozers, excavators, graders and wheel loaders, down 40.2% compared to the first half of 2010, and compacts, mini-excavators, mini-loaders and crawlers, falling 30.6%
The decline in dumpers came to 66.7% while telescopic handlers were down 13.5%. Overall, earthmoving machinery displayed a drop of 32.8% in the first half with a total of 5,132 units sold. In addition to these figures, road construction machinery, rollers and vibratory compactors, was even deeper in the red, falling 49.6% compared to 2010.
The trend was thus worse that the results for the first quarter which closed with declines of 14.3% for earthmoving machinery and 42.3% for road construction machinery to confirm that the crisis, repeatedly reported by the Unacoma/Comamoter manufacturers association, will be difficult to overcome in the short term.
In 2007, ahead of the economic crisis and the decline in the construction sector, earthmoving machinery sales came to a total of 30,120 units and road machinery sales stood at 877 units. By the end of 2010, sales of earthmoving machinery reached only 13,424 units and those of road machinery came to 413 for falloffs of 55% and 53% respectively.
These figures reflected the negative trend experienced by the construction industry and – as was underscored during the Federcostruzioni annual assembly held last June – the overall decline reached 18.4% for the period 2008-10. For last year alone the decrease was put at 6.6%, a loss for which recovery is not feasible in the current year in light expectations of a further decline of around 0.5%.
Unacoma/Comamoter President Massimo Goldoni affirmed, “In a setting like this one, it’s inevitable for construction companies to block investments in machinery and this damages not only the mechanical industries, which manufacture specific machinery for construction, but also overall efficiency on the construction site and the safety of workers,”
Italian manufacturers in the sector are strong on the side of exports so they have to rely on recovery in the foreign markets because of the persistence of critical conditions on the home market. These industries, however, do not intend to resign themselves to this state of affairs and are at work on a package of measures in cooperation with the Ministry for Economic Development and other construction industry representatives. Among other features, the package is expected to contain measures for challenging competition from machinery imported from countries which fail to require compliance with national regulations and for attacking the problem of delays in payment for work on public contracts.
“This is a matter of measures which should be complementary to a more decisive government support policy but would work to at least limit the damage while waiting for this dark time for the economy to come to an end,” Goldoni added.
Rome, 25 July, 2011
UNACOMA
