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United Rentals halved its net losses to US$20 million in the first quarter of 2011 and reported a 9.4% increase in revenues to US$523 million for the period. Rental revenues rose by 14.2% to $434 million.

Gérard Déprez, chief executive officer of Loxam – Europe’s largest equipment rental company – urged aerial platform manufacturers not to overlook the requirements of the European rental sector as they chase emerging markets in Asia and Latin America.

Volvo is moving its North American Volvo Rents business from the Volvo Construction Equipment division to become a subsidiary of AB Volvo.

Denmark’s BMS A/S has sold its aerial platform rental division to Riwal Denmark and will now focus on its crane rental business.

United Rentals' Canadian subsidiary is to acquire Venetor Group, a seven-location equipment rental company in Canada, for an undisclosed price.

Spain’s three main rental organisations for general equipment, aerial platforms and cranes have created a national rental confederation called ConfalQ (Confederation del Alquiler). The organisations believe that working together will help Spain’s beleaguered rental sector in lobbying government on issues such as payment terms.

Caterpillar is seeing growing demand for equipment rental as markets recover because contractors are still uncertain about investing in their own equipment.

French rental company Kiloutou has been sold by its private equity owner Sagard Private Equity to another private equity company, PAI Partners, for €535 million (enterprise value). The deal is subject to approval by competition authorities.

The Smopyc exhibition in Zaragoza, Spain, opened today (Tuesday 5 April) with little signs that the Spanish construction market is recovering from its dramatic slump of the past two and a half years.

Portable roadway rental company Lion Trackhire provided a temporary track for a 1200 t crawler crane working at London’s 2012 Olympic Village site earlier this year.

Aggreko is to establish a temporary 200 MW power plant in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami in the country.

Turkish access rental and sales company Acarlar Makine is planning to increase its aerial platform fleet from 200 to 350 units by the end of this year.

Ramirent has acquired the rental operations of Czech Republic company Stavební Doprava a Mechanizace (SDM), a three-depot operation that rents a wide range of equipment, although mainly access towers and aerial platforms.

Arcgen-Hilta, the UK-based producer of Arcgen, Hilta and SMC products is at the Intermat Middle East show in Abu Dhabi looking for distributors throughout the region and initial contacts look positive.

Coates Hire will invest as much as A$450 million (€325 million) in the current financial year on its fleet and expects spending to be at similar levels for the next two years as it seeks to exploit the buoyant construction and natural resources sectors in Australia.

There seems to be a mood of renewed optimism at this week's Intermat Middle East event in Abu Dhabi concerning construction investment throughout the region.

Intermat Middle East, the new construction equipment exhibition for the region, opened in Abu Dhabi today (Monday, March 28).

Wilson Jones, president of JLG Industries, said the market recovery was proving stronger than anticipated at the start of this year, with the top 20 rental companies in North America increasing investment; "We are seeing CapEx [from these companies] 30 to 50% higher than last year."

Haulotte said it was seeing the first signs that the larger European rental companies are starting to refresh their access fleets, following the lead of the major US renters. The company expects to double its global production this year.

Chicago Pneumatic (CP), the Atlas Copco business that sells basic site equipment such as light compaction, power, compressed air, hydraulic breakers and lighting tools, will become the sole brand used for light compaction equipment in North America, taking over from the Dynapac brand.