Fortunately, the positive vibes producers feel about 2025 are reverberating with the equipment manufacturers serving them.
“We’re feeling very optimistic,” says Jim Chamberlain, regional sales manager at Philippi-Hagenbuch. “We’ve had a couple of really strong years, and I think that trend is going to continue.”
Philippi-Hagenbuch is among the manufacturers that anticipated high demand for a year like 2025. The company planned in the years leading up to 2025 accordingly.
“We’ve expanded our capacity because we knew additional demand was coming,” Chamberlain says. “We’ve been able to expand our production capacity to anticipate that to make sure we can keep our lead times. We know when the money is available, it needs to be spent. When the money is spent, [producers] need the equipment on the ground running. No one wants to wait for a year for a truck to get up and going. We anticipated that, and we have the capacity to continue to expand.”
Karen Thompson, president of Haver & Boecker Niagara’s North America and Australia operations, says customers are eager to spend. That was the sense she got this fall at MINExpo 2024.
“We were talking [with] a lot of aggregate companies in particular that were looking at either upgrading or replacing equipment that was older, expanding in new plants,” Thompson says. “You do hear rumors about how we’re on the cusp of a recession, but we really are not seeing that. People are spending. I think there are a number of policies being put in place to encourage capital investments, as well.”
Montabert’s Stephane Giroudon has a positive long-term outlook for the industry, as well. Giroudon, however, has a couple of more immediate reservations about what’s ahead.
“Long-term prospective, we know the market’s going to remain strong because of the demand for electrification and digitalization,” says Giroudon, sales director at Montabert. “It’s going to be OK for the next 10 to 15 years.
“We think next year is going to be a little more challenging,” he adds. “It will probably be flat or minus a little bit. We’ll see some of the demand for materials made decrease or slow down in some markets. It may not be as strong as this year because of regulation.”
Additionally, some producers were in wait-and-see mode headed into the 2024 elections. Now that those have passed, manufacturers like Philippi-Hagenbuch expect to see more capex decisions made.
“We have several sites we’re talking to that are trying to get permits approved so that they can expand,” says Chamberlain, commenting in the weeks leading up to the 2024 elections. “The material and the resources are there. There’s plenty of resources. But it’s jumping through the hoops and going through the red tape – and that’s important – but how can we streamline that process to make it as efficient as possible.”
Related: How the aggregate industry is performing in 2024
