Having reached a peak in 2021, the global construction equipment market sagged in 2022 due to the collapse of demand in China, and it will decline again in 2023 as the effects of inflation and rising interest rates bite in other parts of the world. Although falling demand is never good news, volumes will remain at historically high levels, and a slowdown could provide the market a chance to reset after two frantic years where supply has fallen badly behind demand from customers.The recent low point for construction equipment sales came in mid-2020 at the start of the global pandemic, with sales rebounding sharply thereafter. That growth continued unabated throughout 2021 in all major markets except China. This saw global construction equipment sales rise 11 percent in 2021 to a record high of 1.28 million units, an increase of 125,000 machines compared to the previous year.This rise came despite a modest decline in China, which peaked in 2020 in response to stimulus spending. Growth in the world, excluding China, in 2021 was 20 percent.There were three fundamental drivers in 2021. First, the extraordinarily low interest rates which were put in place at the start of the pandemic were a strong positive for the residential building market.
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