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Construction equipment industry in Europe - statistics & facts
The European Union is one of the largest producers of construction equipment in the world. There are other regions with higher demand levels for that type of product, such as North America and Asia, where construction equipment sales were significantly higher than in Europe as of 2022. Nevertheless, Europe stands out in the production of some equipment, such as fork-lifts and other trucks with lifting equipment, tamping machines and road rollers, and tower cranes. In fact, the value of the exports and imports of construction equipment by the EU showed large trade surpluses for those types of products.
Although the European construction equipment industry is very well established, it has fierce competitors in the U.S., China, and Japan, which are slightly ahead in terms of market share.
Germany: European industry champion
In 2021, the revenue of manufacturing mining and construction equipment in Germany was higher than that of the next three countries in the ranking: Sweden, Italy, and Finland. It was also several times higher than the revenue of mining and construction equipment manufacturers in the UK and other non-EU countries. Although China and the United States had a larger manufacturing industry, Germany still surpassed those countries in some specific segments. For example, Germany had, in 2022, the largest exports value tamping machines and road rollers in the world.What are the largest European companies in the industry?
Although Germany was the European country with the highest revenue figures, the country with most of the largest construction equipment companies in Europe was Sweden. Not only were three of the six companies in the ranking Swedish, but they were also some of the oldest ones in the industry. Volvo Construction Equipment was founded in 1832 and created its first road roller in 1906, Sandvik was founded in 1862, and Epiroc in 1873. Nevertheless, there were over three times more mining and construction equipment firms in Germany than in Sweden in 2021, which could signal that the German industry was constituted to a larger extent by small and medium-sized enterprises.Although the European construction equipment industry is very well established, it has fierce competitors in the U.S., China, and Japan, which are slightly ahead in terms of market share.
