Construction Equipment Sales Grew 25% in 2011

Sales of construction equipment by the world’s 50 largest manufacturers grew by 25 percent last year - to $182 billion - according to the annual Yellow Table survey by KHL Group, a provider of construction information headquartered in the United Kingdom. This was a record for the industry, surpassing the previous high of $168 billion, set in 2008, prior to the global financial crisis.

The Yellow Table, a ranking of the world’s 50 largest construction equipment manufacturers, saw relatively few changes at the top of the table, with the industry’s long-standing No. 1 and No. 2, U.S.-based Caterpillar and Japan’s Komatsu, continuing to hold the positions they have had for more than a decade.

Climbers inside the top 10 include Sweden’s Volvo Construction Equipment, U.S.-based Terex and John Deere, and China’s Sany and Zoomlion. These gains came at the expense of Hitachi Construction Machinery (although its revenues were within 0.5 percent of Volvo, the company directly above it) and South Korean Doosan Infracore. China-based XCMG fell out of the top 10, having sat in 10th place for two years.

Across the top 50, U.S.-headquartered companies accounted for 31.2 percent of total revenues, up from 29.5 percent the previous year. It was followed by Japan with a 23.2 percent share, down from 23.5 percent the previous year, and China, which had a 16.9 percent share, up from 15 percent in the 2011 edition of the Yellow Table (based on 2010 revenues).

China’s construction equipment manufacturers have seen their share of the top 50’s revenues climb for six consecutive years. During the last decade, their share has increased more than ten-fold in percentage terms. In 2003, the first year the yellow table was published, China’s manufacturers had a share of just 1.6 percent, worth just $841 million. Today their 16 percent share is worth $30.6 billion.

2012 Yellow Table Top 10

1 - Caterpillar

2 - Komatsu

3 - Volvo Construction Equipment

4 - Hitachi Construction Machinery

5 - Liebherr

6 - Sany

7 - Zoomlion

8 - Terex

9 - Doosan Infracore

10 - John Deere

Rankings are based on revenues from construction equipment sales in U.S. dollars in 2011.