ANALYSIS: Accelerated deterioration of the global market for construction machinery

English Section 30 Septembrie 2015

Manufacturers such as Caterpillar and JCB, world leaders in the field of construction machinery, have announced layoffs and restriction of activities due to accelerated deterioration registered in recent months in the global demand for specialized equipments. Thus, while the British producer announced it will lay off about 400 employees, for the North-American supplier the situation seems more serious, after the decline of 6% of the company, its management announced the cutting of 5,000 jobs. However, the North American manufacturer has negatively revised the revenue projections for this year, from 49 billion USD as was the initial forecast, at 48 billion USD. "The current situation does not help and it is emblematic for a weaker global economy," said Joseph Quinlan, chief market strategist at US Trust, financial company founded in 1853, now part of Bank of America group. However, the British group JCB announced entering into a consultation process with staff about measures proposed, noting that an abrupt slowdown of activity has been recorded in recent weeks, particularly in emerging markets, resulting in a sharp drop of unit orders. "Market conditions in our field of activity, being already so difficult for some time, have deteriorated quite rapidly in recent weeks. The situation is about to improve, certainly not on the short term, so that the correction measures are necessary to align the expenditures at the reality in the field. Unfortunately, this will result in waiver up to 400 personnel positions in the UK, "said Graeme Macdonald, CEO of JCB. Company management has stated that in the first six months of the year, orders on the Russian market felt by 70%, those from Brazil shrank by 36% and demand from China decreased by 47%. A severe decreasing trend was installed on some large markets in Europe, in France, for example, the demand dropping by 26% compared to the first half of last year.