The 2024 forecast report analysing the performance of the construction machinery sector prepared by Unacea (National Union of Construction Machinery) and Cer (Centro Europa Ricerche) indicates a downward trend in certain segments of the sector, which in the course of the year may be followed by a physiological slowdown in the construction cycle, which will nevertheless remain robust in overall terms. These are some of the items that emerged this morning at Veronafiere, during SaMoTer Day in the run-up to the 32nd edition of the international construction machinery exhibition scheduled 6-9 May 2026.
“SaMoTer is the only Italian event covering site and construction machinery. 2026 will see several important innovations,” announced Raul Barbieri, Sales Director at Veronafiere, “following the consolidated guidelines that combine business, innovation, internationality and training. The 32nd edition of SaMoTer will present a full-scale Academy with the aim of providing high quality technical training and creating an initial educational path for people keen to develop new skills. Innovation at SaMoTer will also take in logisitics, thanks to specific focus meetings in the road transport sector, which will now have a dedicated exhibition area.” SaMoTer Lab returns as the venue for collaboration between institutions and companies in the name of innovation, as well as the Digital Construction Site, where 4.0 machines and digital control technologies can be seen at work.
The Managing Director of Veronafiere, Maurizio Danese – who is also President of Aefi (Italian Association of Exhibition Centres and Trade Fairs) – believes that trade fairs are a preferential vehicle for doing business. “Figures show us that companies that believe in taking part in trade fairs achieve more than 12% cumulative growth in sales and 0.7 points of additional gross margin compared to competitors; some sectors even show above-average benefits: engineering, as represented by SaMoTer, achieves even better results, thanks precisely to trade fairs, posting growth of 14%.”
Paving Show
New features also include the Paving Show. This new event was announced today to companies and the sector press during Samoter Day. It will makes its debut during SaMoTer (6-9 May 2026). A preview of the Paving Show will take place 12 and 13 March 2025, in the form of an exhibition-conference at the Veronafiere Conference Centre.
Construction machinery: 2024 estimates.
In macroeconomic terms, 2024 will see partly contrasting global trends, ads described by Stefano Fantacone, Scientific Director of Cer. “Growth prospects for the global economy are expected to improve in the two-year period 2024-25, albeit remaining weak and subject to international tensions that generate uncertainty, from the war in Ukraine to the situation in the Red Sea, the economic competition between China and India in Asia and the slowdown in Germany,” commented Fantacone. “At the same time, GDP in Italy is expected to grow by 0.9% in 2024. Although rather limited, this is still higher than the average pre-Covid figure.” The overall feeling as regards confidence among construction companies, despite falling compared to 2023 (from 105.9% to 105%), remains high thanks to the prospects available through Superbonus and PNRR (the national resilience and restart programme), which over the next two-year period (2025-26) is expected to post a very marked acceleration which will help relaunch the sector.
While 2023 was a year of slight decline for construction machinery compared to the previous year (-3.1%, although this figure may well be revised overall from a less negative perspective), it was still 47% higher compared to the volumes five years earlier, equal to 9,000 more machines. The results for road machinery (+31.9%) and concrete machinery (+8.3%) were very positive in 2023. Sales also increased for telehandlers, which posted growth of 1.8%. The earthmoving machinery segment (-5.3%) saw a fine performances for bulldozers (+53%), compact mini loaders (+15.6%) and dumpers (+10%), while backhoe loaders (-20.9%) , wheel loaders (-12.2%) and tracked excavators (-9%) posted significant downturns.
“2024 will be a year of further consolidation,” Fantacone explained, “with a slowdown in sales compared to the peak in 2022, but still well above the 2021 result. The CER forecast places the equilibrium sales dimension at between 27,500 and 28,000 units.” In more detail, construction machinery should reach 27,300 units (-4.9% compared to 2023; 29,613 units were sold in 2022), while earthmoving machinery should be close to 22,700 units sold in 2024. Sales of telehandlers fell to 2,763 units (-4.8% compared to 2023), road-building machinery (-10.4% compared to the previous year) and concrete machines (-3.6% over 2023).
Sustainability as a driver.
The round table moderated by the director of Unacea, Luca Nutarelli, and attended by David Bazzi, Managing Director of Komatsu Italia Manufacturing, Stefania Casturà, Sales Marketing Manager with Cgt s.p.a., and Mario Spinelli, Managing Director of Wirtgen Macchine – demonstrated that the role of the sustainability factor has clearly come to the fore and will be one of the driving forces behind innovation and investments in the future. There is considerable emphasis, albeit only for well-defined categories of small and medium-sized products used in large cities and mainly in areas where green awareness is more prominent (EU and Northern Europe), on the development of electric motors to limit environmental impact, as well as technological solutions to reduce CO2 emissions.
Nevertheless, there are still several uncertain aspects in the background, ranging from interest rates to the SEZs (Special Economy Zones) outlined for Central-Southern Italy and longer delivery times arising from outside factors connected to international geopolitical tensions. However, there are many signs of confidence. “Over the last three years, production of bituminous materials in Italy has settled at between 30 and 35 million tonnes, in other words getting closer to the 40 million tonne pre-crisis level in 2008,” Spinelli pointed out.
Paving, construction sites and innovation.
This SaMoTer Day was also an opportunity to illustrate the progress of the European InfraRob project involving 18 partners from eight European countries coordinated by the University of Vigo (Spain). It has a budget of 5 million euros and a total tome scale of 42 months (until 2025). “Studies in the technological area seek to make asphalting processes autonomous and automated. The intention is also to reduce fatal accidents caused by road maintenance by 50% and traffic interruptions during road infrastructure by 20%,”said Riccardo Viaggi, Secretary General of CECE (Committee for European Construction Equipment).
And staying with the subject of the green transition and safety, the report by the Vice-President of Autobrennero, Alessia Rotta, and Engineer Carlo Costa, General Technical Director of Autobrennero, highlighted the application of scientific measurements and engineering approaches to improve traffic and road safety by directly involving the areas crossed by the main motorway artery connecting Italy with Austria and Germany.