Strong year-end plant sales
29 January 2021
Statistics released today show that UK sales of construction and earthmoving equipment continued their strong recovery at the end of 2020.
Figures from the construction equipment statistics exchange run by Systematics International Ltd, in partnership with the Construction Equipment Association (CEA), show that sales last December were actually 15% above 2019 levels – just sufficient, indeed, to nudge Q4 sales to 1% above the 2019 total.
As a result, equipment sales for the full year were at just over 24,000 units for the year, 24.5% below 2019 levels. However, the CEA states that, while this is still a significant year-on-year decline due to Covid-19, it is less than feared when sales fell by 38% in the first half of the year, following the initial crash in March due to the pandemic.
Demand was greatest for mini and midi excavators (up to 10 tonnes), which ended up only 5.5% below 2019 levels. Strong demand from the house building market is reported to have been one of the key factors supporting demand for smaller machines.
In contrast, sales of the other major equipment types were in a range from 28% to 57% below 2019 levels.
• As we recently reported, JCB is recruiting more than 400 additional UK shop floor employees as it gears up for a surge in production. The manufacturer forecasts a continued solid recovery, with strong demand from mainland Europe and North America.
