According to a report from market research firm P&S Intelligence, the construction equipment market reached roughly $180 billion in revenue in 2020. The report identified the booming requirement for housing and surging investments being made in the infrastructure sector on account of a rising urbanization rate as factors fueling the expansion of the market.

During 2020, in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19, many governments enacted lockdowns, which caused the closing of factories and manufacturing facilities. Furthermore, due to the imposition of social distancing measures and movement restrictions, construction activities came to a halt. This subsequently hampered the progress of the construction equipment market, according to the report.

The report divided the construction equipment market into material handling machinery, concrete and road construction machinery and earth moving machinery. The reported predicted the earth moving machinery category will hold the largest share in the construction equipment market in the coming years, with these machines performing tasks such as soil grading, trench digging, demolition, dirt and rock removal and foundation laying.

Under the power output segment, the 101 to 200 horsepower category held the largest market share in 2020, according to the report, which ascribed the surging usage of this range to several benefits, including a favorable power-to-weight ratio that allows the equipment to provide better fuel efficiency and reduces the operating costs for contractors and equipment operators.

Geographically, the Asia-Pacific region is predicted to be the fastest-growing region in the construction equipment market through 2030, according to the report, which cited the launch of numerous construction projects in the region catering to the demands of surging urban populations as a primary driver. The report said this trend is occurring in India, South Korea, China and Japan, where extensive residential infrastructure development is fueling the demand for construction equipment.

The report identified Hitachi Construction Machinery, Caterpillar, Terex, Volvo Construction Equipment, Joseph Cyril Bamford Excavators, Liebherr, Sany Heavy Industry, Doosan Infracore and Deere & Company as some of the major players in the global construction equipment market.

Among these players, several have launched new products to strengthen their positions in the market. For example:

• In March 2020, Komatsu launched a new electric mini excavator in Japan. This new excavator, the PC30E-5, is aimed mainly at the rental industry and delivers excavation performance comparable with that of internal combustion models with a similar power output while generating no exhaust and reducing the noise of the vehicle significantly.
• In April 2019, Volvo announced it would launch a range of electric wheel loaders (L20 to L28) and compact excavators (EC15 to EC27) in 2020 and end the manufacturing of diesel engines for these models. The organization said the diesel engine remains the best and most-appropriate power source for its bigger machines, but the battery technology and electric propulsion is proving to be highly suitable for its smaller systems.