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What happened to the mini excavator's surge in popularity in North America? Chris Sleight, managing director of Off-Highway Research, explains that the 1990s were a banner year for the mini excavator market, with approximately 4,000 machines sold across North America. This number is a small fraction when you consider that skid-steer loader sales were around 50,000 units per year for most of the decade, with an additional 25,000-30,000 backhoe loaders entering the market annually.

Things began to change in the 2000s, when demand for mini excavators rapidly reached the 10,000 and 20,000 mark annually, before peaking in 2006 with sales nearing 30,000 units. The subprime mortgage crisis then led to a decline in housing construction. The global recession of the following decade took its toll. But when the mini excavator market rebounded, it did so strongly. In 2015, sales exceeded 30,000 units for the first time, and new sales records were set over the next six years. The number of machines sold in 2021 and 2022 was particularly impressive, with 65,000 mini excavators sold each year.

The surge over the past two years is directly related to the boom in residential construction during the pandemic, and compact track loaders experienced a similar surge for similar reasons. However, the long-term growth trend suggests something more fundamental is occurring. As sales of these machines have become larger, sales of backhoe loaders have declined. Sales have been below 10,000 units per year for the past three years, and it's clear that there hasn't been much of a rebound in 2021. The same trend has been observed in Europe over the past 10 to 15 years, with smaller excavators experiencing greater sales growth and increasing acceptance, while traditional products like backhoe loaders have gradually lost ground.

While the European market primarily focuses on smaller machines weighing 2.5 tons or less (this relates to the maximum gross vehicle weight permitted by a standard driver's license), North American demand effectively starts at 2 tons. Machines between 2 and 6 tons (the upper limit of Off-Highway Research's mini excavator classification) account for approximately 85% of sales. This preference for relatively large mini excavators is one of the key reasons this segment is expected to remain strong over the next five years. These machines are large enough for infrastructure construction and smaller residential projects.

This also extends to the smaller categories of crawler excavators, which have again become a significant growth area over the past 10 to 15 years. Machines in the 6 to 12 ton size class currently account for approximately 35% of all crawler excavator sales. This is a significant shift compared to 15 to 20 years ago, when the most popular category was the 20-ton crawler excavator, and the market has generally favored heavier machines.

Obviously, tastes and preferences change over time. In the case of mini excavators, contractors prefer the smaller footprint and 360-degree rotation of these machines to the larger footprint and more limited working arc of a backhoe loader. Plus, of course, mini excavators are often much cheaper to purchase than backhoe loaders.

Source: Machinery Intelligence