European Construction Equipment Markets: A Review of 2018 and a Forecast to 2023

Off-Highway Research's Annual Reviews are summaries of construction sold by product type and by country looking at the last five year's sales data and looking forward for the next five years.

Typical coverage includes: Country Analyses (fifteen European countries), Equipment Analyses (fifteen product types), Production Analyses and International Perspectives.

Although economic growth in Europe decelerated in 2018, the economy and construction activity remained buoyant enough to stimulate a third successive year of robust growth in construction equipment sales. This came despite both economic and political headwinds, with particular concern focusing on the negative impacts of Brexit and rising trade tensions around the world, such as increasing international tariffs.

Sales rose 10 per cent to 177,694 units. This took demand to its highest level since the global financial crisis, although it was still some 15 per cent lower than the remarkable peak of 210,000 units sold in 2007. However, the boom of the mid 2000s took the market to unsustainably high levels, resulting in a prolonged and painful crash. At the current level, European equipment demand is extremely healthy.