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2. Indian market goes from strength to strength

Construction equipment sales in India grew 17 per cent last year, building on the 36 per cent surge in sales seen in 2016. This took the market to 78,109 unit sales last year, a new record for India. This robust performance is expected to continue over the medium term, with sales forecast to exceed 100,000 units by 2022.

The Indian market continues to be dominated by six equipment types - backhoe loaders, crawler excavators, mobile cranes, mobile compressors, compaction equipment and wheeled loaders – which accounted for 93-95 per cent of total construction equipment market between 2013 and 2017.

Last year there was particularly strong growth in the compaction equipment, crawler excavator, mobile crane and wheeled loader segments, all of which grew by more than 20 per cent.

Backhoe loaders still represent some 42 per cent of equipment demand in India, with 32,728 machines sold last year. However, backhoe loader sales growth las year was disappointing at 10 per cent. Although this took volumes close to the previous record high for the Indian backhoe loader market, the relatively weak growth was symptomatic of the saturated machine population, and a gradual shift in preference towards crawler excavators.

Looking ahead, India’s construction equipment market will continue to be driven by construction, mining and other infrastructure investment. The macro economic situation, policy and reforms and availability of funding will support these activities.

The general atmosphere for the infrastructure development in India is conducive to growth in construction and mining. There is an increased focus by the government on infrastructure development, including high-level monitoring of projects. The government is also taking action to reform procedures and policies such as the introduction of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, along with the speeding up of environmental issues, forest clearances and land acquisition issues.

Full details of the market’s development are available in Off-Highway Research’s Indian Annual Review. This is available now to subscribers to the Chinese Service and Chinese Database Service – subscribers click here to log in. The Annual Review can also be bought by non-subscribers. Click here for details.