Construction equipment market insights January 2026
Paul Lyons
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3 minute read
Welcome to the latest edition of our bi-monthly market insights blog which brings together all the key aspects of the market insight reports that 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 with members.
Equipment Sales
After seeing growth in the previous two months, sales of construction and earthmoving equipment saw a significant fall of 15.1% in November compared with the same month in 2024. As a result, sales in the first 11 months of 2025 have seen the increase compared with 2024 reduce to growth of 5.9%. This is in line with expectations for the full year where a modest single digit increase is expected compared with 2024. Following November sales, total unit sales for the 11 months of 2025 have reached 27,300 units.
View the latest report on equipment sales for November (members only).
The December sales update will be published in the last week of January, so keep an eye out for that report.
The latest quarterly update on UK imports and exports of construction equipment for Q3 last year was published in November. Imports and exports both saw slightly lower levels of trade than in Q2. Exports saw a 4.5% reduction in tonnage shipped compared with the same quarter in 2024 and this took shipments in the first three quarters of the year to 8.5% lower than 2024. The USA remained as the leading destination but saw its share of total exports fall to 20% in the first three quarters of the year compared with 26% for the whole of 2024. Most likely this was due to import tariffs being implemented in August.
Imports saw tonnage shipped in Q3 at 1% lower than Q2. However, this followed a significant increase of over 20% in Q2 and as a result, tonnage of imports shipped in the first three quarters of the year were 4.5% higher than the same period in 2024. Japan remained as the leading source for UK imports, based on analysis by country of origin and accounted for 27% of total imports in the first three quarters of last year.
UK trade in construction equipment in Q4 2025 should be available at the end of February.
The Construction Market
The 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 Index in December showed a slight improvement, after dropping in November to the lowest levels since 2020. The index in December was 40.1, remaining below the growth level of 50.0. This continues to reflect subdued demand and caution within the industry, despite moving on from the uncertainty ahead of the Budget. Not surprisingly all sectors continued to show a decline in December, with Civil Engineering as the weakest performing sector. The Commercial sector was the strongest performing but still recorded declining output.
View the PMI for the UK construction market for December.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) have published the latest data on construction activity for October last year. This showed a fall of 0.6% after recoding modest growth of 0.2% in the previous month. As a result, year-to-date output for the first ten months of last year has remained at 1.5% above levels in 2024.This follows a modest increase in output of 0.5% in 2023. The growth in output last year has been a combination of 2.2% growth in new work and a 0.4% increase in repair and maintenance activity.
The Construction Products Association (CPA) published their Autumn forecast in October last year. This anticipated lower growth in construction output of only 1.1% in 2025 compared with 1.9% in the Summer forecast. For this year, growth of 2.8% is anticipated, compared with the previous forecast of 3.7%. The latest forecast highlights modest levels of overall economic growth, alongside limited investment in the sector by the Government and ongoing skills shortages.
The latest construction market update published by Glenigan in October last year identified that planning approvals, contract awards and new project starts had all declined in the previous 3 months compared with the preceding 3 months. The latest report highlighted that the UK construction sector slowed in the three months to September last year, with concerns over rising costs slowing much of the economy down ahead of the Autumn Budget.
There are many other key reports and indicators available on the construction equipment market insights area of the CEA website. 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 you as CEA members. 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 the rest of 2026.
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