Let Italian innovation flourish

I have to admit to having a soft spot for Italy. I got married in Rome and have enjoyed numerous minibreaks and longer holidays in cities such as Verona, Florence, Pisa, Bologna, Bari and Catania. So it was not a hardship to spend three days on the road this summer visiting nine construction and quarrying equipment manufacturers spread out across northern Italy.

Whether it was a crushing and screening solution manufacturer, a plant management technology firm, a quarry dust control product specialist, or a water recycling and filtration system producer, all shared the same spirit of innovation and constant willingness to improve their already high quality equipment. It’s this spirt of innovation and ambition that will, coupled with government spending on new infrastructure, help Italy and neighbouring southern European nations achieve growth in the construction and quarrying sectors.

The state of Italy’s aggregates and construction equipment markets is analysed in the Market Report within this issue of Aggregates Business Europe. As you will read, aggregates demand has been greatly reduced by the fallout of the 2008 global financial crisis. However, 971 ANEPLA, the Italian association of aggregate producers, is optimistic that the nadir of demand has been reached. Coupled with this are new figures from Unacea, the national association for construction equipment and attachment manufacturers, showing highly encouraging growth of 11% in equipment sales in 2014, compared to the previous year. With the first two Unacea market surveys in 2015 showing a 29% sales rise in the first six months of 2015, with 4,030 machines, the innovation and quality of engineering shown by Italian manufacturers may be in for a period of better financial reward.

Signs of a resurgent Italian construction equipment sector coincide with recent Europe-wide growth in the construction equipment sales market. Further figures, this time produced by ISC and highlighted by 4293 VDMA chairman Johann Sailer during bauma Conexpo Africa 2015, show that earthmoving equipment sales rose by 4% in Europe in H1 2015, compared to the same six months of 2014. The percentage rise was only bettered by two other world regions: North America saw a 10% sales rise, and the Middle East recorded an impressive 14% increase in earthmoving machine sales. The ongoing trade sanctions imposed on Russia due to the country’s military intervention in Ukraine are sure to have been a key contributor to a 72% reduction in its earthmoving equipment sales.

One of the biggest deals last year in the global construction equipment industry was the multimillion euro acquisition of 8080 Terex Trucks by Volvo Construction Equipment. I visited the company’s Motherwell, Scotland HQ and spoke to senior company figures about the first year under the Swedish sector giant’s stewardship. While there has been the need for deeply regrettable redundancies, the long-term future of Terex Trucks looks very bright indeed, with 3573 Volvo CE’s commitment to investing in production and R&D complemented by giving the Scottish firm access to their highly impressive global dealership network. The Norwegian Quarry Profile in this issue of ABE demonstrates the importance of long-standing customer-dealer relationships. The one highlighted in the feature has seen a successful family-run quarrying business near Trondheim increase its high-quality sand production capacity after investing in the latest wash plant technology from a leading washing solution manufacturer.

With summer gone and autumn very much with us, the growth in Italian construction equipment demand, and, crucially, the rising equipment demand elsewhere in mainland Europe and the UK, indicates that the final few months of 2015 are likely to offer much encouragement to our industry’s big, medium and small-sized manufacturers.