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2. Modest recovery for Italian wheeled loader sector

The wheeled loader market is expected to grow to some 1,250 units by 2020, which would represent a 45 per cent increase on sales this year, according to Off-Highway’s new report on the market. However, the industry does not have the medium-term potential to return to the high of 2,332 units sold in 2007.

The wheeled loader market has traditionally been one of the largest and most stable sectors of all construction equipment in Italy. Throughout the 1980s and the 1990s, sales of wheeled loaders generally varied between 1,800 and 2,200 machines per year, and followed the fluctuating pattern of the Italian economy.

The troubles of the global economy in 2008 and 2009 had an immediate impact on sales of construction equipment, including wheeled loaders. Sales declined 21 per cent in 2008 and a further 34 per cent in 2009.

The bottom was finally reached in 2013, with sales of just 521 units, scarcely more than one fifth of the market’s high point just six years before. Since 2013 there has been an improvement of sorts. Sales have increased an impressive-sounding 52 per cent in just two years, although when translated into volumes this equates to an extra 265 machines in a market that used to average nearly 2,000 units.

Off-highway Research's report on the Italian wheeled loader industry is available as part of our European Service. Click here for more details. The report can also be bought separately by non-subscribers. Click here for more details.