Gulf Construction Online - German companies achieve record sales

Germany & the Mideast

German companies achieve record sales

01 March 2006

German construction and building material machinery manufacturers set a new record for the industry last year by posting a 15.6 per cent increase in sales to 9.99 billion euros ($11.89 billion), according to figures released by the VDMA, the German construction equipment and building material machinery association.

This year, it expects to see a further increase of about 8 per cent with the growth markets primarily considered to be the Middle East, Russia, China and India.
“Our positive result in 2005 can once again be attributed to a booming export business,” says Dr Christof Kemmann, president of the VDMA.
For the coming year, VDMA expects to see a 3 per cent growth in sales in the domestic market and about 10 per cent growth in international sales.
“The German manufacturers began the new year with full order books. This is a rather extraordinary situation for the sector,” Kemmann points out.
Glass equipment manufacturers have already received double-digit orders for this year and according to him, this will have a positive effect on the sales figures throughout the year.
Most of the companies expect to see further growth in exports this year together with a likely improvement in the domestic market scenario, says the VDMA.
However, the industry is concerned about the current political situation in Iran, where several construction and manufacturing companies have a major backlog of orders or orders that still have to be settled.
Last year, the industry sold 7.49 billion euros worth of machinery and equipment, which represents a 21.7 per cent increase compared to the previous year. Sales for construction equipment rose by 23 per cent to 5.03 billion euros and those for building material, glass and ceramic machines increased by 19 per cent to 2.46 billion euros. Exports currently account for 75 per cent of the sector’s sales with the most important destinations being the US, followed by Western Europe and China.
According to the manufacturers, the only segment of the domestic market that enjoyed buoyant growth last year was the construction equipment sector, where construction equipment and building material machinery manufacturers sold equipment worth 2.5 billion euros. Sales of construction equipment rose by six per cent or 1.93 billion euros while building materials, ceramic and glass equipment machinery sales fell by 14 per cent to 0.56 billion euros.