The French earthmoving market: behind and overall stability, two different tendancies

The French construction equipment industry has shown double-digit growth rate over the past two years (+32% in 2016 and +21% last year). In detail, sales of heavy earthmoving equipment grew by +21% and +15% in 2016 and 2017 respectively. Regarding compact machines, the French market recorded huge rates of growth over the same period: +35% in 2016 and +22% in 2017.

The first quarter 2018 seems to show a different trend. Firstly, growth rates will be lower overall this year. Secondly, compact equipment market will remain at levels close to those reached last year. Thirdly, the rate of growth for heavy equipment should be higher than that of the compact equipment.

Over the first three months, heavy are up +4% while, for compact machines, the market is decreasing by 2% compared to the same period last year.

Rental companies are major players for the compact construction equipment industry. They account for almost 60% of all sales. But, they are expected to be less active this year.

The civil engineering construction should be much more important, driven for a part by the Greater Paris project and also other different projects in some regions. But, local authorities budget remains constrained.

Non-residential construction is up, but the residential construction activity seems to decelerate since a few months.

Above all, manufacturers' order books have never been so high, but manufacturers are unable to produce more, mainly because of insufficient supplying parts and components. For this reason, the delivery times are rising sharply.