Italian market: drop in registrations, the used market is growing

The data on registrations in the first ten months indicate a decrease for tractors, for tractors with loading platforms and for combine harvesters. Tractor sales should reach a total of around 19 thousand units at the end of December, in line with the average of the last few years. Instead, the sales of used machines are growing, much more significant in numerical terms compared to new ones

In the first ten months of the year, the Italian agricultural machinery market recorded a decrease for tractors, tractors with loading platforms and trailers. The data was prepared by FederUnacoma on the basis of the registrations provided by the Ministry of Transport. These figures indicate a 6% decrease for tractors compared to the ten months of 2017 (15,920 units registered), a 18% decrease for tractors with loading platform (552 units registered), while trailers held at the same volumes as 2017 (+0.3% with 8,205 units registered). Telehandlers for agricultural use also show a stable trend, with 628 units registered. A decreasing trend is also recorded for combine harvesters, which show a slight decrease (-1.5%), although this is not very indicative since it refers to a small number of units (317). The trend of the market in 2018 can still be considered anomalous, conditioned “upstream” by the forced growth of registrations in 2017 (notably due to the need of the manufacturing industries to conclude sales and registrations before the entry into force of the Mother Regulation). This produced a downturn that continues in the ten-month totals and which, in anticipation of a stabilization of the market in the last two months of the year, should bring a final balance of around 18,500 tractors, a result essentially in line with average levels in recent years. However, the agricultural machinery market is not just about new factory products, but includes a very large proportion of used machines. In the final balance of 2017 - Malavolti explained - there are 22,700 new and 35,200 used tractors, and we must therefore consider that the demand for machinery was actually 57,900 units overall. The market share of used products, which represents a brake on a qualitative improvement of the machine fleet (20 years is the average age of used tractors sold in Italy), is also growing strongly. The data of the specific survey carried out by the Studies and Statistics Office of FederUnacoma indicate that in the period between 2014 and 2017, used tractors have gone from 24,766 units to 35,200, with a 42% increase. A review of the sales in January-September this year - added Malavolti - reveals that compared to the 14,353 newly registered units, there are 29,771 used ones, with an increase of 7.6% over the same period last year year. If one examines the historical trend of the first nine months in the period between 2014 and 2018, we note an increase in used sales of 56.7% in just five years. On this basis, we can estimate that at the end of the year the tractors market, including both new and used, will be around 56 thousand units overall.