UK equipment sales continue to rise

UK construction equipment sales continued their growth in January.

Retail sales of construction and earthmoving equipment showed further growth in the first month of the year, recording a 10.4% increase on the level of sales seen in January 2021.

This followed sales in Q4 last year showing 18% growth on the levelof sales in Q4 2020.

This suggests that the rate of growth in sales is slowing down in the early part of the year, which is not surprising after the very high levels of sales recorded in 2021, which many members described as a “record year”.

The pattern of sales on a regional basis in the UK and Northern Ireland is shown in the map below for January compared with the same month in 2021.

This shows higher levels in most regions, with Yorkshire the strongest at over 60% up on last year.

However, a few regions showed reductions compared with the first month in 2021, with the East of England (-19.7%) and London (-7.6%) recording the biggest falls.

Equipment sales in the Republic of Ireland are also reported in the statistics exchange. Sales in January showed a 12% reduction compared with sales in the first month of last year.

This followed fairly flat sales in the second half of 2021, with the last two quarters recording only modest increases of approximately 2% on sales in Q3 and Q4 of 2020.