CAPTION: Construction machinery manufacturers experience opposing trends. (picture alliance/dpa)
The international construction machinery trade fair Bauma has begun in Munich under inauspicious circumstances: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is now predicting a global recession. Material shortages, inflation, and rising interest rates are weighing on builders and machinery manufacturers. There is a wave of cancellations in German residential construction, and the expectations of construction companies are at their lowest level in 33 years, according to the Ifo Institute.
The construction machinery sector has not yet ventured a forecast for the current year. Mining equipment manufacturers are benefiting from rising global demand for raw materials, "there's more of an upward trend there." But in the case of building materials plants and construction machinery, companies are feeling the effects of the slowdown in construction activity in Europe, according to the Mechanical Engineering Industry Association (VDMA). It is now hoping for more clarity and new impetus from the world's leading trade fair, Bauma.
Bauma is considered the largest trade fair in the world – with over 614,000 square meters of exhibition space, visitors can spend the whole week marveling at giant dump trucks for mining, 540-ton crawler cranes, or cranes from the height of Munich's Frauenkirche.
But there are fewer exhibitors than at the last Bauma three years ago. While then there were 3,800, there are now only about 3,100 - most of them from Germany, Italy, and Turkey. China continues to struggle with the COVID-19 pandemic, the national Bauma edition in Shanghai, which was actually planned for November, has been canceled, and the number of Chinese exhibitors has shrunk to just under a quarter. And Russia is no longer present at all.
As an international business platform, Bauma is important - "a place where companies present themselves, meet partners, and close deals," said trade fair spokeswoman Sabine Wagner. Last year, the mostly medium-sized manufacturers generated 12.4 billion euros with German-made construction machinery. Two-thirds of this was sold abroad, mainly to European Union countries and the United States. However, the industry has long since given up on the strong sales growth it had previously hoped for.
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