WEST ALLIS, Wis.—The construction equipment manufacturing industry expects U.S. and Canadian business to remain flat through the end of this year but rebound in 2008, according to the annual forecast released by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM).
Sales to global markets should continue to be strong through 2007 and into the next year, according to AEM.
In the association’s latest survey, overall construction equipment demand in the U.S. will decline 1.9% by the end of the year, while worldwide business will increase by 9.9%. In Canada, the market is expected to remain flat this year.
For next year, however, AEM expects growth in the U.S., Canada and worldwide, with the biggest gain (8%) in global markets.
Major factors affecting construction equipment sales include the downturn in the housing market and the economy in general, according to AEM.
“However, growth in non-residential construction continues to offset losses in the housing market,” said AEM President Dennis Slater. “For equipment manufacturers, the continued global demand for construction machinery is also balancing the slowdown in our domestic business.”
Sales of lifting equipment—including aerial work platforms, knuckle and telescopic boom truck cranes, hydraulic truck and rough-terrain cranes, lattice boom cranes, telescopic handlers and lift-truck forks—by the end of 2007 are predicted to gain 0.6% for the U.S. and 2.7% for Canada, while increasing 15.7% for other worldwide markets. For 2008, sales are expected to increase 5.2% in the U.S., 1.3% in Canada and 11.9% in worldwide markets.
The AEM annual outlook forecast covers 71 product types and 23 types of attachments and components, grouped into seven general categories. AEM conducts the survey in the third quarter of each year and consolidates manufacturers’ estimates of overall business activity. Each forecast in the AEM survey is the average of responses from companies in each product line, predicting industry-wide expectations rather than individual company performance, and unit sales rather than company profitability. The complete survey is available at www.aem.org.
