SUMMARY OF REPORT CONTENTS

    UK Access Equipment Market 2007 - 2013 by Value (£m at MSP)

The UK market for access equipment was worth an estimated £235m in 2010 having declined by -1% in 2010. Market decline in 2010 has been relatively marginal, and difficult to estimate, reflecting the variable performance of different product groups and the wide range of end use markets – including construction, industrial and domestic.

While the global financial crisis and construction downturn represented the principal adverse factors impacting on the access equipment market in 2010, many sectors are suffering from the fall out from funding problems, either through difficulties in raising finance or from declining business confidence.

A continuing positive long term influence on the development of the access equipment market has been the impact of legislation, in particular the ‘Work at Height’ Regulations 2005 - The impact of the regulations is likely to become more limited in the future as significant substitution has already occurred between ladders and access towers and MEWP’s. However, niche opportunities are continually occurring in the MEWPs sector.

Non-powered access products, which includes ladders, scaffolding and access towers, have been negatively impacted by the construction downturn and registered an average yearly market decline of approximately 8-9% during 2008-2010. However, the powered and specialist access sector has also been adversely impacted by the construction downturn to an even greater extent, with an average market decline of around 9-10% during 2008-2010.

In addition to public expenditure cuts, a negative impact in the domestic sector is represented by the continuing fall in disposable incomes and house moving levels which tends to impact adversely on the non-powered access sector in particular. In overall terms, the absence of significant long term growth in the housebuilding sector is likely to limit the range of opportunities for all sectors of the non-powered access equipment market, in particular.

While 2010 has been relatively stable, or marginally declining, 2011 is viewed as slightly more positive, with a forecast growth of around 1%. However, as indicated previously, market performance will tend to be variable, with certain sectors performing better than others.

It was announced in late-2010 that the Government will be placing orders for rail electrification and new rolling stock worth £8 billion. Electrification and the infrastructure upgrade, are likely to provide significant demand for the MEWP sector, in particular, with the need to erect overhead structures and the use of insulated booms, access towers and ladders for testing and commissioning, etc.

Niche sector growth opportunities include long term demand from wind turbine projects for the rough terrain heavy truck mounted platform sector, used for installation, also inspection and maintenance.

Orders for fleet renewals from the MEWP rental sector could provide significant motivation for the overall UK access equipment market. The pattern of demand in 2011 may provide some indications as to when this is likely to occur, though historical volatility of order-placing makes it difficult to forecast the next upturn.