Since the start of PDi, the magazine has published its Concrete Cutting Survey in issue 6 every year, providing an estimated summary of the size of the global concrete sawing and drilling industry. One part of the summary has been based on data coming from the member associations of the international umbrella association, IACDS, with these figures proving to be quite reliable. For other countries and markets that either don’t have trade associations in the field of concrete sawing and drilling, or are not members of the IACDS, PDi has estimated the size of the market, how many contractors and other relevant information.

IACDS Industry Report 2020

For the last four or five years, IACDS has not provided an industry report for the member associations. Last time PDi published an estimate of the annual revenue of the global concrete cutting industry was in December 2018. This year however, IACDS have provided a comprehensive industry report which has been used in the PDi survey. The figures provided by IACDS concern current data from the IACDS member associations of Australia, Austria, Germany, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States. Other countries information that we have listed is based on PDi’s own estimates; this will hopefully give an idea about the size of the global concrete sawing and drilling industry in 2020.

This year, IACDS has provided an in-depth and comprehensive industry report on the global concrete cutting market based on data from its current member associations. The industry report is free for IACDS members and costs only €100 for non-members and industry professionals, being a valuable source of information, and can be ordered through the IACDS website: www.iacds.org. The report both looks back on the past three years and gives estimates on 2020 revenues and forecasts on 2021 and 2022. The Industry Report is also free for all those who have participated in its elaboration. The idea is to publish it with a constant frequency, so that we can always have that general vision of the industry.

The pandemic has had a major effect on the industry

What can be said in general about the overall development of the market globally is that the Corona-19 pandemic has led to negative figures in terms of both sales of goods and services. These figures range from -3% to over -10% in certain markets when compared with 2019, which saw almost all markets having positive figures ranging between 0.4% to 6.1%. However, the forecast for 2021 is that all markets foresee a ‘bounce back’, with sales growth being estimated to be between 2% to 7.6%. Also, for 2022 it is believed that there will be further growth, estimated to be between 0.9 to over 5%.

In terms of manufacturing during 2020, there were quite dramatic drops in all markets during the spring, with the lowest figures being reported during the month of April. For some markets the drop has been more severe than for others, but in general, production levels have been picking up for all markets during May, June and July. Things are not quite back to the levels they were at the end of 2019, but are well on the way.

As well as hard performance data, the IACDS Industry Report has also provided other types of interesting information about what services contractors offer and to what extent. General concrete cutting services of course dominate, with over 50% of contractors stating that they provide these services, but other services are also listed. These include (along with a % figure) such activities as anchoring, concrete scanning, grooving, floor preparation demolition with remote controlled robots, and so forth.

The report also gives information about the percentage of large, medium and small concrete cutting firms there are globally, and at what level most contractors work (i.e. locally, nationally or globally). Also found is a ranking in percentage terms of the turnover of the concrete cutting firms. These are provided in groupings ranging from small companies with a turnover less then €500,000, to large firms with a turnover of over €5M. The report also shows in percentage terms how much of the contractor’s services result from regular concrete sawing and drilling. 

An interesting chart found in the report is one that shows how concrete cutting firm’s business has evolved from 2018 to 2019, showing in percentage terms any reduction or increase in business. A forecast is provided in terms of business prospects, change of workforce, training of staff, investments, utilisation rate of fleet, etc. Overall the report provides a highly valuable source of information whether you are an existing contractor, supplier to the concrete cutting industry, or if you are planning to enter the industry. The charts in the article give an accurate idea of the revenues of the global concrete cutting business, with the figures from IACDS members being highly reliable, although, as stated, the figures for the other countries are estimates by PDi Magazine.

www.iacds.org