China’s Strong 2020 Performance Will Impact Global Forecast for Construction Machinery

Cleveland OH, January 24, 2022 – A new Freedonia Group analysis finds that a slowdown in China’s construction machinery market will have a sizable effect on demand growth for these products at the global level through 2025:

• Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most countries experienced declining construction machinery sales in 2020 as economic conditions weakened, international trade decreased, and many currencies depreciated against the US dollar. These nations recorded losses of 5% to 20% in 2020, wiping out a large portion of gains recorded since 2015.
• However, China proved to be an exception to this trend. A surge in government stimulus spending, coupled with the country mitigating the most significant impacts of the pandemic at a relatively early date, prompted double-digit gains in construction equipment demand and prevented even greater global losses.

Through 2025, however, China will underperform most major markets and restrain the average global rate of growth, owing largely to its strong 2020 performance. First, growth will occur from a high 2020 base. Second, numerous Chinese operators invested in new equipment and replaced aging machines in 2020. Most other national markets will record a strong rebound in construction machinery demand through 2025, with particularly strong gains coming during the first part of the forecast period.

Outside of China, Growth Through 2025 Will Be Noticeably Faster

Global demand for construction machinery is forecast to grow 4.1% per year to $250 billion 2025. Outside of China – which had an elevated level of 2020 product sales – annual growth will be noticeably faster (5.3%). Globally, advances will be supported by:

• rising construction activity – aided by factors ranging from population growth to increasing industrial output – and infrastructure spending
• advances in worldwide mining and forestry activity and energy production, supported by a recovery in commodity prices from 2020 lows
• increasing replacement sales of global construction equipment, after many operators delayed machinery purchases in 2020
• the introduction of newly developed, state-of-the-art construction equipment, which will cost considerably more than predecessors
• rising sales of replacement parts and attachments as the amount of equipment in use around world increases

Want to Learn More?

Global Construction Machinery, now available from The Freedonia Group, provides historical data for 2010, 2015, and 2020, and forecasts for 2025 and 2030 for global construction machinery demand by product type, total production, and net exports on a country-by-country basis in millions of current US dollars, including inflation. Also provided at the world level is construction machinery demand by product type in thousands of units.

Products:

• excavators, including crawler-mounted, wheeled, hydraulic, and cable-types
• loaders (wheel, skid steer, crawler, and backhoes)
• cranes (e.g., truck-based and tower cranes, rough terrain and all-terrain, telescopic, crawler) and draglines
• dozers (angledozers, bulldozers, wheel dozers, and crawler dozers) and off-highway trucks (also known as haulers; include one-piece, or rigid frame haulers, or two or more sections, or articulated haulers)
• mixers, pavers, and related equipment
• graders, rollers, and related equipment (including scrapers and embankment and landfill compacters)
• separately sold replacement parts and attachments (auger drives, blades, buckets, couplers, drills, grabs, hammers, shovels, etc.)

About the Freedonia Group - The Freedonia Group, a division of MarketResearch.com, is the premier international industrial research company, providing our clients with product analyses, market forecasts, industry trends, and market share information. From one-person consulting firms to global conglomerates, our analysts provide companies with unbiased, reliable industry market research and analysis to help them make important business decisions. With over 100 studies published annually, we support over 90% of the industrial Fortune 500 companies. Find off-the-shelf studies at https://www.freedoniagroup.com/ or contact us for custom research: +1 440.842.2400.