European Rental Association ERA Q2 Survey Report: The equipment rental industry is recovering

Date : 2021-07-20

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The survey results for the second quarter of 2021, jointly organized by the European Rental Association (ERA) and International Rental News (IRN) magazine, showed that the equipment rental industry is recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic. Among the companies participating in the survey in the last two weeks of June, positive responses overwhelmingly dominated.

 

The equipment rental industry experienced a rapid decline in the first quarter of 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic, even worse than during the financial crisis. But the recovery is also rapid, just like the overall economic recovery, the leasing business has begun to rebound from the most severe crisis.

 

The same applies to the assessment of device utilization trends, with 70% of respondents indicating an increasing trend in device utilization in the second quarter, and only 6% indicating a decrease in device utilization in the second quarter.

 

Judgments about next year

 

The respondents also hold an optimistic attitude towards the coming year, with 74% predicting an improvement in the business environment one year from now, and less than 5% predicting a worse situation.

 

Of course, these judgments are based on expectations for the pandemic. Although the world has not yet overcome its difficulties, we are on a path of improvement, and with the advancement of vaccination plans, we are expected to see a return to normal life.

 

This is also reflected in the survey results on employment intentions: nearly 53% of the surveyed companies expect to increase their employees in the third quarter of 2021, which is close to the record breaking level from the end of 2017 to 2018. Only 3% of the surveyed companies expect a decrease in the number of employees in the next quarter.

 

Similarly, there is a similar positive assessment regarding the expected investment in equipment fleets in the coming year, with 64% of surveyed companies increasing their equipment investment this year, indicating a significant improvement in optimism. Compared to this year, it is expected that the proportion of expenditures in 2022 will be even higher, reaching 68%, which is also very positive.

 

Regarding regional differences

 

Due to significant differences in the way different countries respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, this is reflected in the fact that some countries (especially the UK, France, Spain, and Italy) still face severe challenges in the leasing industry, while the problems that arise in markets such as the Netherlands, Germany, and Nordic countries (such as Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark) are much fewer.

 

Similarly, countries with less impact last year had smaller rebounds: for example, the Nordic companies surveyed had lower than average positive trend judgments in the second quarter because they were less affected by the pandemic.

 

That is to say, the more severely affected by the epidemic, the more obvious the rebound in new additions.

 

Overall, for the equipment leasing industry that is still in a recovery phase, the results are reassuring, with expected investment levels increasing and expected employment numbers increasing. Most respondents are optimistic about further improvement in the coming year.

 

(This article is from KHL)