NEWS
CONCRETE BATCHING MACHINERY
The Italian market is still in recession in the first quarter of 2011
Still negative figures for the Italian market of concrete batching machinery, which in the first quarter of the year, with only 67 units sold, has lost 25% compared to the same period last year. These data have been obtained thanks to Simon, Unacea's new statistics software devoted to construction equipment. The product lines analysed include truck mixers (-27%), truck mixer-pumps (-40%), truck mounted pumps (-10%), as well as concrete pumps, plants and shotcrete machinery. In comparison with the sales figures of the fourth quarter of 2010, the balance is negative, although with a lower percentage (-13%).
"It's the whole construction machinery market that remains in crisis – declared Paolo Salvadori, Le Oru – Imer Group president. – We need to get out of this drift. We expect of the government a new policy that should reward the safety, environmental sustainability and efficiency of building yards, contributing to the renewal of concrete batching machines."
"The Italian producers of concrete batching machinery – said Federico Furlani, Simem CEO – are concentrating mainly on the export towards markets that can compensate for the loss of activity in Italy, where the situation is still particularly negative because of the public works stoppage and the persisting political uncertainty. Detrimental to the construction sector is also an extremely negative attitude on the part of the banking system. Such attitude – although justified by the losses suffered in the construction sector in the recent past – is preventing any financial intervention, even when this could lead to positive results. Consequently, we hope that both the political and the financial world will reconsider the importance of the construction sector as a drive of the economic system and will direct the necessary resources to its recovery. Positive signals, at least for the intentions they show, can be found in initiatives such as Social Housing, which we hope will soon lead to an increase in the production of concrete batching."