Construction equipment industry registers 18% YoY growth in Q1
Construction equipment sales grew by 18% in Q1 of FY 2023-24, as compared to Q1 of the last fiscal year, as the total equipment numbers sold increased to 27,244, against 23,037 numbers of equipment sold in the first quarter of FY 2022-23. Of this, 24,806 were sold domestically while 2,438 were exported, a report published by Indian Construction Equipment Manufacturers Association (ICEMA) said.
“The industry has maintained its growth momentum in the first quarter of the current fiscal year and have recorded a high growth mainly due to the accelerated pace at which the infrastructure projects are being implemented,” said V. Vivekanand – President, ICEMA and Managing Director, Caterpillar India.
The growth in sales during the first quarter of the current fiscal comes on the back of positive growth in three of the CE industry’s major equipment segments, viz., Earthmoving Equipment by 19%, Road Construction Equipment by 38% and Material Handling Equipment by 57%. The other two major equipment segments – Material Processing Equipment and Concrete Equipment – registered minor drop in sales, of 10% and 11% respectively. On a month-on-month basis, however, overall CE sales in June 2023 at 8,781 units were 2% lower than 8,986 units sold in May 2023.
Earthmoving Equipment, which accounts for around 70% to total CE sales, sold 18,831 units in Q1 of FY 24, of which the bulk was comprised of increased sales of backhoe loaders (10,161 numbers) and crawler excavators (6.866 numbers). The substantive growth of 57% in sales of Material Handling Equipment comes on the back of spurt in sales of 2,966 pick and carry cranes.
“We welcome the sales growth in Q1 and expect the positive trend to continue,” said V. G. Sakthikumar – Treasurer, ICEMA and Chairman & Managing Director, Schwing Stetter India. “The 17% increase in budgetary allocation to the infrastructure sector and 15% increase in the budgetary allocation to NHAI are already showing results in the form of pickup in the pace of infra projects, which will further enhance the prospects of the CE industry. The industry expects the next two quarters to see a boost in demand on the back of the directive of the government to spend 80% of the budget allocation for the infrastructure sector by December 2023,” he explained.
Dimitrov Krishnan, Immediate Past President, ICEMA and MD, Volvo CE India added, “The current fiscal being an election year, the projects in the pipeline, as well as those that start shortly, are expected to be completed well in time. We at ICEMA request the government to ensure that the steady pace of execution of projects is maintained, to ensure the continued robust growth of the construction equipment industry at the expected rate of around 15% for the current fiscal year.”
