Our annual Buyers’ Guide is finally here, providing you with the latest one-stop source for information on equipment and the suppliers who provide and service it.
Of course, Portable Plants’ Buyers’ Guide is also online, accessible at portableplantsbuyersguide.com. You can easily search by manufacturer, equipment type and keyword, boosting your ability to make the next investment in a portable plant or a support piece of equipment.
2019 has been another good year for equipment sales, although a number of manufacturers serving our industry will tell you their 2019 sales have not been on par with 2018.
And that’s OK. 2018 was essentially gangbusters for everybody, with many end users finally making major capital expenditures after years of simply “getting by” following the leaner recession years that robbed them of their market confidence.
Last year’s high demand for equipment pressed some manufacturers like never before. Equipment availability was nonexistent in some cases, and lead times were often dramatically stretched out.
Manufacturers were sometimes at the mercy of their own vendors to provide critical parts and components, putting them in an awkward position with potential customers when they could not effectively deliver equipment.
With equipment availability in question, contractors and producers were more apt to shop around in 2018. And with construction activity at high levels and job opportunities rampant, end users needed equipment “yesterday” to meet the demands of the market.
While 2019 has not been 2018 in terms of equipment sales, it’s fair to characterize the year thus far as one of the best in recent memory.
Manufacturers were under a lot of pressure to keep up with equipment demand in 2018, but 2019 has allowed for a more manageable pace and, subsequently, more acceptable lead times.
Don’t get me wrong: There are still instances in which contractors and producers cannot get the equipment they want. For example, one contractor shared recently how his company put three months of research into a guillotine shear. When the company was finally ready to purchase, it was told the one available model had sold the day before. And that the next available shear would not be ready for another few months.
So it goes. Fortunately, there’s a case to be made that this kind of problem is a good one for the industry to have. Or, that it at least reflects the notion that the state of the industry remains very healthy.