After six years of growth as a result of the German construction and civil engineering equipment industry in 2009 expected an end to the boom. "Is characterized with the slump in new orders is already clear today that we have to accept, especially in construction sector, deep setbacks," said Christophe Kemmann, Chairman of the VDMA and construction machinery at the general meeting of its trade association on Thursday in Karlsruhe. It is equipped once to insert a setback can.
Yet the signs point to growth in its industry. In the first nine months of 2008 the revenues made by the German building and construction industry over the same period have risen again. This was to pay particular of developments in building materials equipment sector. For building materials, glass and ceramic machines, revenues in this period increased by 79 percent. This sharp increase is due to large orders from the cement plant. Construction at the growth was seven percent lower.
Over the same period, new orders for construction equipment are down markedly, across all segments. They are on average a third lower than at the same time last year. Get the most manufacturers of tower cranes, concrete technology and earthmoving equipment to sense and also the manufacturers of standard machines such as excavators and wheel loaders. The building material machines, however still recorded an increase in their orders at seven percent.
Because of the large orders in the cement sector, the industry association's revenue forecast from the beginning of 8.2 percent increase for the entire industry this year will even exceed it slightly. The association expects sales growth of 8.6 percent to 16.6 billion euros. Kemmann stressed that these figures but should not obscure the serious situation in the current orders.
The export is the mainstay of the industry. In the first nine months of this year were construction and new earthmoving equipment worth around eight billion euros abroad. That's about 16 percent more than at the same time last year. With 68 percent share of exports, Europe is the largest market, followed by Asia (nine percent) and North America (seven percent). The world export market for building and construction is continually expanding, and in 2007 by the numbers of international trade statistics at 76 billion euros. Germany thinks a world export share of 14 percent. "We have the growth participates proportionally, while countries like the USA, Japan or Great Britain had to share issue to other competitors - especially the Chinese," noted Kemmann The Chinese companies have expanded their global export activities in the last five years, however strong. and can increase their world market share in this period from two to six per cent export. Chinese enterprises, mainly to Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and are currently also trying in Russia are to successfully walk. In Europe and North America have so Kemmann but yet can not achieve a significant market share.
2009 expected a sales decline of the trade association for the industry as a whole from 4.6 percent to 15.8 billion euros. Attributable to Construction accounts for 10.7 billion euros (minus 7.5 percent) and civil engineering machinery 5.1 billion euros (plus 2.2 percent). Overall, expect a period of tight financing Kemmann behavior that will negatively affect the business of the industry. How long this phase was continuing, no one can know, so Kemmann. This will depend on whether, how and when the policy tools in the fight against access the financial crisis.
The recession in key construction markets like the U.S., Spain, Britain and France will provide the industry beyond. A positive trend for the building and construction industry will see the economic experts of the Association at the earliest in the second half of 2010.
