Editors Message
World Construction Forum
Intermat Attracted Some of the Biggest Minds in the Machine Business to Paris
There are more roads being built in Mumbai and Beijing than in Boise or Boston these days, but that’s not to say America isn’t having its own construction revolution. Emission regulations, equipment automation and next-gen fleet management services are just a few of the factors transforming the U.S. construction market into one of the most high-tech in the world. The global construction industry is changing quickly and that could be felt and heard at one of the biggest construction tradeshows in the world — called Intermat — held in Paris April 16-21.“We’ve really seen a dramatic change in the worldwide market for construction over the past four or five years,” explained Pat Olney, CEO of Volvo Construction Equipment, speaking to the press at Intermat, discussing emerging economies. “The China market has become roughly 50 percent of the world market for construction equipment, fluctuating around the level of some 400,000 machines sold.”
BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) continued to dominate PowerPoint presentations at Intermat. These four economic engines are still being fueled by massive infrastructure construction spending, but these growing players are also producing products for global contractors. Chinese equipment stands at Intermat represented 9 percent of exhibitors. The show was an opportunity for Chinese machine manufacturers to announce their European acquisitions and big North American dealer expansions.
“We have been selling machines into America since 2007,” explained Jordan Huang, president assistant for LiuGong Machinery in North America. “We are still very young in North America. Right now, we’re really developing our dealer networks, but we think the U.S. market is coming back strongly — especially the rental business.”
North America was the focus of many world industrialists. Specifically Tier 4 engine emission regulations were discussed extensively, and newly designed diesel power plants were unveiled on the show floor. New machines being sold on U.S. dealer lots in 2012 will have the cleanest and most high-tech diesel engines ever mass produced, using ultra-cool technologies like common rail fuel injection, exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and select catalytic reduction (SCR).
“We’ve been building these ideas for quite a long time, and now it’s all coming to fruition,” explained Daniel Clayton, Tier 4 product manager for Perkins Engines. “Tier 2 to Tier 3 added new types of electronics to the engine. Tier 3 to Tier 4 Interim we added exhaust after-treatment. Now, we’re adding the next step for Tier 4 Final — the SCR system.”
Fitted with these complex engines, new machines were launched in epic proportions at Intermat. Caterpillar displayed 60 machines in its enormous booth, with more paving products than ever before. At its enormously-orange outdoor booth, JCB announced that in 2012 it will release more new machines than anytime in its 60-plus years of business, including its expanded line of one-armed skid steers and compact track loaders. Both in America and abroad, the construction business seems to be accelerating. At Intermat, contractors and manufacturers from around the globe looked to capitalize on these expanding markets.
“The total value of the equipment on offer over the six days at Intermet was estimated at $2 billion,” said exhibition manager Maryvonne Lanoë. “Some 5 percent of which translated into orders, an equivalent of approximately $100 million.”
We’ll cover both Intermat and other evolutions in the global construction economy in upcoming issues of Compact Equipment.
Keith Gribbins
Managing Editor
kgribbins@benjaminmedia.com
