The industry's business mood is continuing to improve, turning fully into positive for the first time since early 2014.
Future expectations turned positive across all product segments, while the current situation has improved particularly in edge segments (components, turf & livestock equipment).
42% of the surveyed companies expect an increase in their order intake in the next 6 months, with order intake expectations for livestock, harvesting equipment and tractors being slightly higher than those for arable equipment.
The main reason for the upswing lies in the constantly improving demand coming from inside the European market. By contrast, in the past months, incoming orders were driven mostly by exports outside the EU. As a consequence, turnover expectations are much more optimistic for Europe, and the positive mood is spread across all European markets.
However, this improvement is not everywhere based on solid investment needs. In the CIS countries, Romania, other new EU Member States, and Spain there is a particuarly high requirement for end-users to enlarge or replace agricultural machinery.
