1-18 FB Tractor Sales Up

AEM is the North American-based international trade group for the off-road equipment manufacturing industry. They say agricultural machinery manufacturers predict overall business in the United States to close out 2010 with 2.4 percent growth, then gain 3.7 percent in 2011 and 2.4 percent in 2012. For 2-wheel-drive tractors, the most growth through 2013 is predicted for machines with 40-100 HP.  I talked with Charley O’Brien, VP Agricultural Services at AEM: “When you look at the smaller horsepower tractor a lot of that goes into the consumer purchases…a lot of people are weekend farmers. We always look at that as an indicator of the general economy

For 4-wheel-drive tractors, strongest growth is seen for 2010 with double-digit sales increases, up 18.8 percent in the U.S. Sales of combines are expected to increase 6.4 percent in the U.S. by year end 2010.

Each business-activity forecast is the average of responses from companies in each product line, predicting industry-wide expectations rather than individual company performance, and unit sales rather than company profitability.