Europe in 2025 – A Year Defined by Geopolitics and Tariffs
Yet another year defined by geopolitical instability has passed us by; where high inflation rates, rising costs of raw materials, and the still ongoing conflict in Ukraine all continued to shape the economical situation in Europe. However, the economical wild card of the year would have to be the introduction and subsequential enactment of tariffs from the U.S—which has and will continue to affect all manner of import and export heavy industries across the globe for a long time to come.
The EU was certainly not exempt from these tariffs, as the union received a blanket 15% tariff rate targeting pretty much all goods being exported to the U.S—which took effect during July of 2025. Some goods, however, received more targeted tariffs at higher rates (such as steel and aluminium goods produced in the union). This, in combination with many of the other issues outlined above, has left its mark on many European sectors and industries. The construction sector, for example, experienced significant headwinds during the last year, but to an uneven degree based on what subsector you look at. Residential construction has fallen off thanks to a myriad of different factors, while civil engineering and infrastructure projects managed to weather the storm better and have gained renewed interest throughout the continent.
Many of the European industries and sectors are thus deeply intertwined, whether directly or indirectly—whereas developments seen in one sector can easily cause ripple effects that affect many other associated sectors. There is also a certain type of interdependence between industries and specific types of equipment frequently seen amongst other industries. For example, demand for forestry equipment is tightly linked to construction (through timber demand) as well as wood supply constraints, while material handling equipment and transport demand usually go hand in hand.
Our upcoming Market Trend Report focuses on a few of these equipment types: backhoe loaders, wheeled excavators, skid steer loaders, diesel forklifts, and tractors. The data shows that the number of these equipment types being listed for sale on Mascus in Europe has remained pretty much the same during 2025 compared to 2024. However, demand for these same units has, on average, increased significantly during 2025—indicating that that there is now greater competition over a pretty much equivalent number of units being put up for sale.
Europe in 2026 – A Year of Continued Uncertainty
As such, our outlook going into 2026 is that demand for heavy industrial equipment within the transport, construction, agricultural, material handling, and forestry sectors will remain high throughout the year; both for the newly manufactured equipment market as well as for the used equipment market. However, it is not only demand for equipment that will remain high—but also the prices. One of the main reasons behind these high prices is that the raw material necessary for equipment manufacturing has in itself increased in price over the last couple of years. Add to this the tariffs that have already been imposed by the U.S on the European market—as well as the newly introduced threats of further tariffs—and you have yet another layer of economical uncertainty looming over the newly manufactured equipment market.
Owing to these factors, the used and rental equipment markets have both seen an increase in market activity as they offer an alternative to buying highly expensive equipment. Rental in particular has become increasingly more popular during the last couple of years as it is generally easier to rent relevant equipment for a certain amount of time rather than outright buying and selling the equipment once it is no longer needed. Even so, the used equipment market remains popular and sees a high demand for quality objects—which it admittedly has struggled with over the last couple of years as supply of said objects have remained low. We believe that the market’s issues with supply and demand will remain true for 2026 as well.
One possible reason behind the low supply of attractive objects on the used equipment market could be explained by the fact that many fleet and equipment owners have opted to refurbish their older equipment rather than putting it up for sale on the used equipment market. This is mainly done in order to increase the operational life of said objects—thereby circumventing the need to look for suitable and oftentimes costly replacements on either the new or used equipment markets.
If the previous year is anything to go by—with all its economical and geopolitical uncertainty—then we are in for an unpredictable 2026; as the question is no longer if these uncertainties will continue to manifest themselves—but rather how and to what extent.