ARA projects strong growth for equipment rental

Today’s economic indicators are mixed and uncertain, but all continue to point toward significant growth for equipment rental revenue in the U.S., according to the latest quarterly update of the five-year forecast from the American Rental Association (ARA).

The update, released Aug. 3, projects equipment rental revenue, including the construction and general tool segments, to grow 11.2 percent to nearly $55.9 billion in this year. ARA expects growth of 6.2 percent in 2023, 2.5 percent in 2024, 3.3 percent in 2025 and 3.7 percent in 2026 to total more than $65.1 billion.

“Rental revenue continues to experience significant growth, despite some headwinds in 2022,” said Tom Doyle, ARA vice president for program development. “The longer-term forecast, while showing slower growth than this year, remains bullish. It is generally a good time to be in the equipment rental industry.”

For construction equipment rental revenue, the forecast calls for a 12.5 percent increase in 2022 to surpass $41.6 billion, with growth slowing to 7 percent in 2023, 2 percent in 2024, 3 percent in 2025 and 3 percent in 2026.

“In these times of higher uncertainty, it is prudent to closely watch the driving factors to the forecast for changes that will affect build schedules for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) or demand for rental companies. Depending on how long we have high inflation, supply chain constraints, labor shortages and climbing interest rates, those econometric drivers can have an impact on the rest of 2022 and the outlook for 2023,” Doyle said.

ARA said general tool growth is expected to be 7.4 percent in 2022 and then remain fairly steady with 5 percent growth in 2023, 3 percent in 2024 and 5 percent in each of the following two years.