Corona crisis: how is the lift industry doing?

What is the economic situation of the lift industry in the Corona pandemic? To determine this, Elevator World Inc., the German lift association VFA-Interlift e.V. and the trade fair organiser AFAG conducted a survey in cooperation with Credit Suisse.

The survey covered almost 600 participants. The most important results:

Assessment of the current economic situation. Overall industry balance is skewed towards challenging current situation (34 % answering ‘bad’ vs 26 % ‘good’ with remaining 40% neutral) driven primarily by Asia Pacific outside of China while Europe and North America responses are broadly balanced. Industry associations are most negative on the current assessment, followed by Consultants and Component Suppliers while Manufacturers and Service Providers are least negative.

Outlook. Industry is overall slightly net cautious on the outlook with 29 % expecting unfavourable development over next six months vs 19% favourable while over one half expect stable. The result is less negative across Europe and North America but is skewed downwards by Asia Pacific (ex-China). Industry associations are most cautious, followed by Manufacturers and Component Suppliers while Consultants and Service Providers are least negative.

Expressed as a PMI-like diffusion index, globally, the current situation score is 45 with forward looking commentary scoring 45.

Limiting factors. Unsurprisingly, COVID-related restrictions are most cited (65/5), followed by economic uncertainty and insufficient demand. Uncertainty over regulations and shortages of materials or equipment are least impacting.

Employment prospects. The industry plans to maintain current levels of employment in Europe and North America but the Asia Pacific ex China result is sharply negative with 30% responses pointing to a net decrease.

Business activity vs pre-COVID levels. This dataset is primarily Europe related and the result is net significantly below for New Equipment and Modernisation vs broadly stable for Maintenance. Our numerical interpretation of the result is that New Equipment is 5-10 % below and Modernisation 2-3 % below.

More information: The complete survey as a pdf-download.