Equipment market in Italy strengthens

Sales of construction equipment in Italy made a strong recovery in the fourth quarter of 2020, to stabilise the market, according to Italian trade association Unacea.

Data compiled by Unacea showed a total of 19,962 units sold in 2020, representing a 0.2% increase on sales in 2019, but with a hike of 13% in fourth quarter growth.

Earthmoving equipment - by far the largest element of the market - saw total 2020 sales of 16,251 units, representing a 0% change from 2019.

The largest positive move was made by road construction equipment, with year-on-year sales rising 15% to 711 units.

Mirco Risi, president of Unacea, said, “The Italian construction equipment market has been able to dynamically recover the stop imposed by the first lockdown in March. The market has shown that it can play a countercyclical role for the economy as a whole, along with all the construction sector. Now we expect a certain and stable process of defining the recovery and resilience plan, in order to push forward the resilience in the current year”.

The results of the Unacea survey were presented at a press conference organised by Centro Europa Richerche (CER).

Stefano Fantacone, scientific director of CER, said at the event, “Despite the general climate of uncertainty, the construction industry, along to the machinery sector, is benefiting from a new and useful trend of investments. We expect it will last in 2021, when GDP is forecast to start growing again, at a rate that we estimate around 4%”.