Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/578350
A ugust and September brought less-than- stellar news from U.S. construction equip- ment manufacturers. Deere announced construction equipment sales fell 13 percent in the company's third quarter, and it now expects its construction and forestry sales to fall 5 per- cent in 2015. Caterpillar, citing mining and energy market down- turns in multiple global markets, said it may cut as many as 10,000 jobs by 2018 in in effort to reduce costs by $1.5 billion. All of which makes an interesting background when you look at the January through July results for eight types of financed construction equipment, as reported by Equipment Data Associates, a sister company to Equip- ment World. Compared with the same time period in 2014, most equipment categories have seen double digit gains in the number of units financed. (The exceptions: backhoes, down 5 percent; and dozers, up 5 percent.) Also in terms of number of units sold, all equipment types during the first seven months of 2015 bested the five-year, same period average by 14 to 42 percent. However, if you take a total year look, forecasting the remainder of 2015 to act like 2014, the financed picture doesn't look as rosy, even though compact equipment is still performing quite well. At at project- ed 20 percent year-over-year positive gain, compact excavators top even the popular compact track loader (with a 17 percent gain) in forecasted number of units sold. Skid steers and backhoes, however, are pro- jected to be basically flat (1 percent) year over year, and two machine types – wheel loaders and dozers – will take a slight dip into negative space. (Depend- ing on machine type, it's estimated between 40 to 75 percent of the total machine market is financed. Transactions not tracked by EDA include bank letters of credit and cash.) If the total construction equipment market plays out as forecasted for the financed market above, this will certainly not be an in-the-waste-basket year, de- spite the current outlook of some manufacturers. EquipmentWorld.com | October 2015 9 on record | by Marcia Gruver Doyle MGruver@randallreilly.com 2015 equipment unit sales contrast manufacturing outlooks January-July 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 YOY % Difference* Compact track loaders 3733 5509 6759 8939 11368 21% Compact excavators 2344 4033 5189 6917 8751 21% Skid steers 4711 6225 6953 6798 7584 10% Excavators 2067 3909 4316 5664 6256 22% Backhoes 1697 2106 2230 2752 2647 -5% Wheel loaders 2634 3056 3679 4953 5535 11% Dozer (incl. LGP) 1040 1641 1954 2585 2716 5% Articulated trucks 282 384 403 820 1001 18% *2014 - 2015. Number of financed units sold, leased and rented.Source: EDA, edadata.com. Total year 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Fore- cast YOY % Difference* Compact track loaders 6931 9668 12378 15946 19267 17% Compact excavators 4532 7210 9406 11901 14832 20% Skid steers 9850 12121 12820 12742 12854 1% Excavators 4091 6278 8220 9795 10603 8% Backhoes 3295 3982 4061 4734 4486 -1% Wheel loaders 5060 5984 7206 9408 9380 -0.50% Dozer (incl. LGP) 2279 3135 3742 4548 4603 1% Articulated trucks 500 754 855 1424 1696 16% *2014 compared to 2015 forecast of financed units sold, leased and rented. Source: EDA, edadata.com