Brake applied to French farmers spending spree
Brake applied to French farmers spending spree
As Europes largest
Continental market for farm
machinery, manufacturers
exhibiting at SIMA keep a
keen eye on trends. But they
could be disappointed this
year. Peter Hill reports
IT looks as though the French farmers tractor and machinery spending spree is over.
After a succession of years in which sales of everything from field cultivators to high horsepower tractors have continued to climb against expectations, the slow-down is finally settling in.
Figures from SYGMA, the association of machinery manufacturers in France, estimate an overall market down 3% in value last year, with tractor sales – the key barometer of such trends – dropping from a recent record peak of more than 41,000 units in 1999.
At between 36,500 and 37,000 new tractor sales last year (official registration figures have yet to be compiled), SYGMAs estimate sees the market having fallen back by 10% to 12% or between 4300 to 4800 units.
Increasing popularity of the telescopic handler – France has overtaken the UK as the biggest market for such machines – explains some of last years fall in tractor sales. Similarly, there was a big (perhaps 16%) drop in demand for vineyard/orchard tractors, a sector, which represents a substantial proportion of the French market. But the fall in numbers of new tractors going on to French farms suggests that those that wanted to modernise their tractor, or restructure large arable unit fleets with fewer tractors of higher horsepower doing the same or more work with less labour, have done with spending for the time being.
That pattern is reflected in sales of other types of arable equipment. Combine harvesters and self-propelled foragers fell by at least 15% each for harvest 2000, according to SYGMA figures, big square balers by some 6%. Sales of cultivation equipment and seed drills have variously suffered by 5% to 25%.
Although there has been some movement towards minimum tillage, the big cut in cultivator and drill sales suggests it is not going to go much farther for the time being. Doubts over the strength of cereal and oilseed prices will also have played a part.
In contrast, grassland equipment showed continued gains last year, perhaps bolstered by milk prices that last year regained ground lost in 1999, rising beef prices (before Frances own BSE crisis began to take hold), and firmer prices in the pig and poultry sectors.
Round baler sales, for example, while remaining fairly stable in terms of numbers, saw increased demand for higher-specification, higher priced machines such that the value of this particular market to manufacturers gained some 5% to 12%, according to SYGMA calculations. Grass mower sales were similarly buoyant, gaining in both units and size.
The forecast for 2001? More of the same, with a further 5.5% drop in new tractor sales reflecting a total agricultural equipment market that could shrink 5% to 15% in volume this year. Farmers will buy machinery only if they need it, not simply to take advantage of tax concessions, believes SYGMA. It also predicts firmer new equipment prices, with a result that second-hand equipment demand should strengthen.
Back in the midst of the tractor market, new EU rules that delay publication of official tractor registration figures indicators of individual marque performance in the French market rely on well-informed estimates from buoyant 1999 sales.
Volumes and market share make a big difference to an equipment makers well-being. It can be painful trying to win market share gains by squeezing margins and selling on a more competitive price ticket. But the long-term returns from a higher level of more profitable parts business (as well as service activity for dealers) makes market share and volumes attractive targets.
In 1999, 41,349 units were sold in France and most makers held their ground rather than making any bold gains or suffering painful losses.
Figures compiled by French farm machinery magazine Materiel Agricole confirm New Hollands lead once more, with a share within an ace of its 1998 performance.
How post-merger uncertainty over future New Holland models and dealers (as well as their Case counterparts) affected the market share performance last year remains to be seen.
Domestic manufacturer Renault Agriculture must now settle for second place in the rankings, it seems, having made no further gains in its 1999 share over the year before when its performance was bolstered by the Ares range coming on stream. New models in the 200hp class may help Renaults ambition to regain the top spot, to which it is closer in pure unit terms given that it makes John Deeres 3010 Series models.
John Deere sales dipped back below the 15% share level, but not enough to lose its third-place ranking to AGCOs Massey Ferguson marque which held its ground on an estimated 11.6%. Case-IH also fell back a touch, as did the Same, Lamborghini, Hurlimann trio of same-tractor marques.
Renewed confidence in the Deutz-Fahr Agrotron may have played a part in the marques continued recovery in France, lifting its share – like that of Valmet – above 4% for the first time in recent years.
Landini appears to have held steady in the 1999 rankings, but, this year, should start to gain added sales from its McCormick-branded tractors. These will appear for the first time as a result of the Case-New Holland merger and fears of over-riding market domination by CNH Global in France and a handful of other European countries.
Had the new entity been in place in 1999, it would have taken a 28.6% share of tractor sales, more than 10% ahead of Renault Agriculture, and some 17% ahead of AGCO with its Massey Ferguson and Fendt marques. *
Tractor sales in France – 1999 shares
New Holland 17.8%
Renault Agriculture 16.2%
AGCO 16.0%
Massey Ferguson 11.6%
Fendt 4.4%
John Deere 14.8%
Case-IH / Steyr 10.8%
Same Deutz-Fahr 8.7%
Same* 4.4%
Deutz-Fahr 4.5%
Valmet 4.1%
Landini 2.4%
*Includes Lamborghini and Hurlimann.
Source of unofficial 1999 figures – Materiel Agricole.
Tractor sales in France – 1996-1999
1996 1997 1998 1999**
New Holland 6,912 7,226 6,813 7,360
Renault 5,777 4,960 6,369 6,698
John Deere 5,393 5,166 5,746 6,119
NH Fiat [4,415] [4,185] – –
Massey Ferguson 5,206 4,776 4,306 4,796
Case-IH / Steyr* 4,522 4,056 4,355 4,465
NH Ford [2,495] [3,041] – –
Deutz-Fahr 1,449 1,272 1,388 1,860
Same** 2,122 2,194 1,949 1,736
Fendt 1,658 1,953 1,984 1,819
Valmet 1,111 1,207 1,342 1,695
Landini 733 991 1,032 992
Zetor 391 352 415 n/a
Others 2,299 1,949 2,338 3,809
Total 37,571 36,510 38,037 41,349
*Includes Steyr in 1999 figures only; **including Lamborghini and Hurlimann.
Source of unofficial 1999 figures – Materiel Agricole.
New Holland maintained its leading position in France in 1999, the most recent year for which a reliable break-down of figures is available.