Agricultural Machinery: Market Hits Historic Low
Press Release
Agricultural machinery: market hits historic low
Data on registrations in 2012 point to a steep drop in sales of all types of machinery. Tractors closed down 17.4%, combines were off by 5.4%, transporters tumbled 26.3% and trailers fell 12.%. The market crisis signaled by the lowest number of registrations in recorded history is weakening agriculture as much as it is the manufacturing industries producing machinery and equipment, enterprises holding out thanks only to a healthy export trend. The president of the manufacturers’ association, Massimo Goldoni, said his association would go to work to add a specific new plan for the sector to the government’s agenda immediately after the general election.
With a total of 19,343 units registered the tractor market closed 2012 with the worst results in its recorded history. From the time the FederUnacoma manufacturers’ association began compiling statistics back in 1954 the figures on tractor sales had never dropped to this low. The same can be said for combine harvesters, with sales at 389 units in 2012, the lowest level ever reported, and for transporter sales, which stopped at 1,135 units for the second worst result following the 865 units sold back in 1961.
In percentages, the declines reported for 2012 came to 17.4% for tractors, 5.4% for combines, 26.3% for transporters and 12% for trailers. The more-or-less steady decline of registrations since 2005, due in part to restructurization in the primary sector with Common Agriculture Policy reform and, in part, to the country’s economic weakness causing trouble for fixed investments and new technologies, has resulted in Italian market conditions which are even more worrying when compared to the trend in the rest of Europe.
After closing 2011 with an overall gain of 12% in tractor sales, at 122,000 registrations, the European market is expected to confirm a 2012 balance sheet showing the same levels of sales with significant increases turned in for those countries with agricultural traditions and importance of the sector comparable to Italy’s. France reported a 12% increase in tractor sales for 2012 following a 22% surge in 2011 and Germany reported plus 0.8% at the end of December in the wake of the strong gain of 26% in 2011.
FederUnacoma President Massimo Goldoni commented, “Already last summer we had the sensation that the domestic market could fall below the threshold of 20,000 tractors because of the weak economy and the lack of specific incentive instruments for the purchase of machinery, except for the RDPs, the Rural Development Plans which are still under utilized however and in which agricultural mechanization is only one of the many headings for financing.
“As FederUnacoma, we have already developed an attack strategy for supporting the sector but until the next executive is installed, after the election, it won’t be possible to negotiate with a government for inserting agricultural mechanization in the new political agenda,” Goldoni added.
“We are truly in an emergency because these market levels weaken the farming system at a time in which the primary economy is called on to compete on international markets and adequate technologies are needed more than ever and, at the same time, the agricultural mechanization industries are in a crisis, especially those working mainly for the domestic market and unable to offset the crash of sales at home with exports.”
In fact thanks only to exports the Italian industry is able to maintain good production levels. The most recent National Statistics Institute (Istat) data on foreign trade disclose that over the first nine months of 2012 tractor exports rose 15% to reach the vale of € 1.206 billion with exports of 50,515 units compared to 45,211 in the same period in 2011, and that other types of agricultural machinery and equipment exported gained by 7.7% to the value of € 2.102 billion.
Rome, January16, 2013
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