Worldwide Aerial Rental Fleet Grows by 4 Percent, IPAF Reports

April 18, 2016

The International Powered Access Federation reports there are now 1,170,000 mobile elevating work platforms, also known as aerial work platforms, in rental fleets around the world, an increase of 4 percent year over year. The United States AWP rental market recorded moderate growth of 5 percent in 2015 to reach approximately $8.3 billion, according to the IPAF US Powered Access Rental Market Report 2016.

The U.S. AWP rental fleet expanded by 3 percent in 2015 to top 530,000 units, the report said. Because of the current slowdown in the oil sector, the proportion of construction end-markets in AWP rental increased slightly to reach 73 percent in 2015.

The Chinese MEWP rental fleet grew by about 35 percent in 2015 to reach about 12,200 units.

The European MEWP rental market grew by 3 percent in 2015 and is estimated at approximately €2.7 billion, according to the IPAF European Powered Access Rental Market Report 2016. Fleet expansion continued at a moderate pace to reach 313,000 units. The 10 European countries surveyed were Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

There are four main groups in Europe:

Spain and Italy are growing fastest currently having gone beyond recession with growth of 5 percent of higher in 2015;
Sweden and Germany remain highly dynamic markets with continuous positive growth at 5 percent;
The U.K. and Norway, traditionally dynamic markets, are showing signs of slower growth currently;
Finland, France, the Netherlands and Denmark are showing stabilization to slight growth, but are existing from recession.

The IPAF rental market reports are presented in an easy-to-read format, highlighting key facts and figures for senior management, such as fleet size, utilization rate and retention period. They include an estimate of the size of the aerial rental fleet worldwide, with breakdowns by region and machine type. New aspects covered in 2016 include details on construction and non-construction sub-sectors in aerial rental revenue, utilization rates by equipment type (booms vs. scissors) and preliminary estimates of the number of operators trained annually.

A report on Canada is included in the U.S. report.

The IPAF U.S. and European Powered Access Rental Market Reports 2016 are available in English and can be purchased at www.ipaf.org/reports.