Construction equipment market insights - 2024 wrapped

Welcome to this, the first of our new regular blog bringing together all the key aspects of the more detailed Construction Equipment Market Insight reports I provide. I will be producing this overview and summary every other month to ensure that you don’t miss any of the key information we are sharing. 

Equipment sales 

Back at the end of 2023 we saw a sharp downturn in equipment sales. It should be noted however that this is a pattern that has been repeated for many years with good recovery kicking in in Q1 2024. The year then continued with peaks and troughs but (if you ignore ‘the Covid years’) the ‘pattern’ of the year quarter by quarter remains familiar.  

Due to strong sales in November 2024 the year averaged out on a relatively flat sales trend (for equipment sales) and was approximately 20% down on 2023 as forecast. The good news is that most forecasts are pointing to modest ‘single figure’ growth in 2025. 

Members can view the full report on the website.

The December 2024 report will published on 30 January so keep an eye out for that. 

The construction market 

Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) provides a summary of all things construction, from bricks to cement and is a good indicator of what is happening in the wider sector. 

The PMI for the UK construction market for December 2024 can be viewed here. 

It showed a lower level of growth than in recent months. The Index in December was 53.3, down from 55.2 in November. However, it has remained positive and suggests growth in construction activity since March 2024. Commercial was the fastest-growing sector in December but was offset by Housebuilding, which is continuing to show declining activity for the third month in a row.  

There has been much in the news during 2024 around housebuilding with our Government announcing schemes to build 1.5 million new homes over this Parliament. In her first budget in October Chancellor Rachel Reeves shared her plans for many ambitious projects that should benefit our sector including £500 million for road repairs, and £1.4 billion for school repairs and rebuilding. We are all watching very closely to see how these projects will progress. You can read a full summary of the budget produced by Professor Andrew Angus of Cranfield University for the CEA. 

Recent market analysis from Glenigan indicates that the top 100 construction projects due to start in 2025 will generate £34 billion-worth of work.  

Another key set of data I regularly track and report is from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) their latest report – to November 2024 – showed a slight downturn in output v 2023 of 0.2% below.  This drop was mitigated by strong performance in the repair and maintenance category. 

Finally, the Construction Products Association (CPA) is useful as a key indicator of the wider market. They published their Autumn report in October last year which forecasts growth in output of 2.5% in 2025.  

The Winter forecast update is expected to be published in February and I will, of course, keep you all updated. 

There are many other key reports and indicators available on the Market Insights Area of the CEA website here.  These are all Member Only resources, so I encourage you to take a look. 

I trust you find this summary useful and a good reminder of all the key industry statistics and indicators that are available to as part of CEA membership. If there are any other measures or metrics you would like me to take a look at please don’t hesitate to get in touch. 

With best wishes for 2025.