Excavators: Demand on the Rise
Beating the Covid-19 pandemic blues, manufacturers are offering a range of excavators from mini, medium to heavy capacity, loaded with telematics for better machine management and attachments for a range of multi-utility jobs. Moreover, they are also looking at renting, leasing, and refurbishing their machines as a new avenue of business growth.
As per a report by Off-Highway Research, the long-term future trend for the excavator industry remains positive and demand is expected to grow with a CAGR of 16 percent during 2021-2023 and reach 28,000 units, but is expected to come down to 25,000 units in 2024 due to the election year. Anticipating a demand recovery in 2021 with stalled projects taking off, excavator manufacturers are aggressively promoting their products on the back of their technologically advanced features and a range of attachments. Escalating competition in design and technology is driving manufacturers to make operational advancements in their excavator engines, hydraulic systems, structures, tracks, and cab designs to increase fuel efficiency and productivity.OEMs are also making more advancements in their telematics, which has gained increasing popularity with equipment owners keen to optimize their machine’s uptime and safety.
To make their excavators usable in a wider variety of applications, most of the companies are offering a range of attachments for deep digging, drainage cleaning, braking, crushing, soft soil areas, digging/loading of different types of materials, etc. Attachments include buckets, breakers, tracks, booms, bucket crushers, arms, etc. The demand is visible across projects like irrigation, mining, quarrying, and municipal applications like drainage cleaning and infra development in urban spaces.
The revival may not be as absolute as it was before Covid, however, with improvisation and more product support on the machine, manufacturers are looking to maximize the ROI of their customers, even if profit margins are still under pressure.
In the current market scenario, where liquidity has become an issue, equipment buyers are also looking at options like leasing, and refurbishing of their existing fleet. In view of this, many CE companies are seriously considering expanding their services to meet these needs. They are offering flexible leasing to prospective buyers and rent their machines to contractors, which they see as another avenue to grow their business.