NEW research has revealed construction equipment sales fell by almost 22% in Q1 2020, as the Covid-19 impact started to take hold.
Sales of construction and earthmoving equipment in the UK market fell by 21.8% in the first three months of 2020, compared with the same quarter in 2019.
This included a ‘sharp fall’ in March when the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in many businesses temporarily closing and social distancing measures introduced.
Equipment sales in January and February were only down by 6% compared with the same months last year, but this figure rose to 45% in March as a result of the crisis.
In total, Q1 sales were just below 6,300 units, compared with over 8,000 units in the first quarter of 2019. In March, sales were just below 1,800 units this year, compared with over 3,200 in March 2019.
The data was provided by the construction equipment statistics exchange, which is run by Systematics International Ltd. This scheme is run in partnership with the Construction Equipment Association (CEA).
