Agricultural machinery: market lows in 2024

The national agricultural machinery market closed out 2024 with a significant decrease in sales. That is the indications from the data relating to registrations for mechanical vehicles over the past twelve months processed by FederUnacoma based on records provided by the Ministry of Transport. The decline affected all of the main types of machinery, starting with tractors which, with approximately 15,448 units registered, dropped 12.3% from last year (17,613 units sold), marking the worst performance since 1952. There was also a decrease in combine harvester sales, which fell 31.8% with 266 registered vehicles (390 in 2023), and for transporters (tractors with loading platforms) which dropped 14.9% with a total of 525 units sold (down from 617) last year. The difficult economic phase also impacted telescopic handlers and trailers. Compared to the previous twelve months, the former decreased by 14.4%, hitting 977 registered units (compared to 1,141 in 2023), while trailers managed to limit losses to 2.8% with 7,504 registered vehicles (compared to 7,718 in 2023).

The sector, after peaking in 2021, is in its third consecutive year of decline, with the downward trend being primarily influenced by the increase in production costsand high interest rates making access to credit difficult. These factors, together with the stagnation of agricultural incomes, have also affected the demand for machinery in the larger European and North American countries. In the European Community, France (-10.1% for a total of 26,507 units sold), Germany (-3.4% and 29,291 vehicles registered) and Great Britain (-11.9% with 11,761 vehicles) slowed down, while across the Atlantic, both the United States (-13.2% with a total of 217,200 units sold) and Canada (-15.8% with 23,444 vehicles) decreased.

The Italian market situation has been even more complex due to the expectations placed on the incentive system. The incentives for investments in 4.0 technologies, which provided great impetus to the entire agromechanical sector in 2021, are running out - says the association of manufacturers, FederUnacoma - the funds under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (Piano nazionale ripresa resilienza, PNRR) can only be used for the purchase of electric or methane-powered tractors and, although they also take into account other vehicles for precision agriculture, they seem destined to have a more limited impact. In this scenario, the Innovation Fund and the ISI Inail incentive program have certainly contributed to limiting the shortfall, which otherwise would have been greater, however - states the builders' association - the complexity of the current economic phase requires further strengthening and reflections on new structural intervention plans.