Gloomy year for Yellow Table recipients

The Yellow Table is compiled by UK based KHL Group, a provider of construction information. Since 2003 the company has been recording sales of the world’s 50 largest construction equipment manufacturers.

 

The annual table analyses the standings of the industry's leading manufacturers and looks at long-term trends in the industry such as revenue cycles and regional growth. 

 

According to the 2013 Yellow Table, the world’s largest construction equipment manufacturers revenue fell to US$163 billion. A downturn in the global mining industry, the continued slowdown in China and the depreciation of the Japanese Yen were the key drivers of the fall.

 

In terms of rankings the global numbers one and two, Caterpillar and Komatsu, were unchanged from last year and Volvo Construction Equipment swapped places with Hitachi to take third place.

 

Caterpillar and Komatsu have been number one and two on this table since its inception 10 years ago.

 

Liebherr and Terex each moved up two places to numbers five and six respectively as Zoomlion and Sany felt the impact of a falling domestic market.

 

The top 10 in the Yellow Table were:

 

Position	Company	Last year	Change
1	Caterpillar	1	–
2	Komatsu	2	–
3	Volvo	4	+1
4	Hitachi	3	-1
5	Liebherr	7	+2
6	Terex	8	+2
7	Zoomlion	6	-1
8	Sany	5	-3
9	John Deere	9	–
10	Doosan Infracore	10	–

Mining downturn

The downturn in the global mining industry pulled revenues down for many earthmoving equipment manufacturers last year. The top 10 manufacturers’ revenue accounted for 62.8 per cent of the top 50’s revenue for the year.

Although the Yellow Table attempts to measure revenues from construction equipment sales and excludes companies that serve only the mining industry, it is inevitable that a downturn in mining will impact on many of the companies in the league table.

The slowdown in China had an impact across its domestic construction equipment sector. Besides the falls for Zoomlion and Sany, Lonking, XGMA and Chenggong outside the top 10 also lost places. XCMG, Liugong and Sunward held their ground, with Shantui the only Chinese manufacturer to improve its standing.

Another key factor in this year’s Yellow Table was the depreciation of the Japanese Yen over the course of 2013. The Japanese currency was 22 per cent weaker than a year previously, which had an impact on the table as it is based on revenues in US dollar terms.

For example, Komatsu’s revenues from construction equipment sales in the 2013 calendar year were JPY1723 billion, compared with JPY1678 billion the previous year, a +2.3% increase. 

However, there was a negative effect in terms of the Yellow Table ranking in dollars. The company’s converted revenues fell from $USD21 billion in last year’s Yellow Table to $USD17.6 billion this year – a 16 per cent decline.

This currency effect also contributed to slides down the rankings for Hitachi, Kobelco, Tadano and Furukawa.

For more information, view the KHL video.

Source: KHL Group