You wouldn’t know the troubles in U.S. residential construction markets if you were at the CONEXPO-CON/AGG and IFPE expositions last week in Las Vegas. From what I heard and saw, people were buying and shopping hard. The two biggest impressions I came away with were the quantity of international exhibitors and attendees, and the increased focus of energy-efficient and hybrid technology, both on the construction side as well as hydraulic and motion control products.
 
Without question, the vitality of the show indicates there are some growth markets even while the national focus is on the housing markets. Manufacturers and distributors at the show said their industrial sales were strong. Those selling into energy-related sectors and any markets with export were reporting continued strength. This show had a lot of next-generation engines, controls and technology with a whole new level of energy efficiency in mind. With the spike in oil prices, the next show in three years will have some exponential leaps in marrying software, hydraulics and controllers to drive efficiency.
 
Perhaps the sleeping giant is infrastructure. There was a forum where a federal commission spotlighted the deficiencies and needs in the future. I came away from the show thinking this issue has to get national attention and become the next crisis issue for this country to retain a competitive position in the world.
 
With everything in Vegas larger than life, this show fit -barely. The Las Vegas Convention Center was packed out as well as surrounding parking lots, including the lot across the street at the Riviera Hotel. It looked like an amusement park outside, except instead of kids there were construction professionals checking out the newest gear -concrete pumpers with booms reaching above nearby hotel roofs, mobile and fixed cranes, excavators, recycling sorters, pavement resurfacers, specialized demolition equipment and literally hundreds of tons more. That’s just outside.
 
These co-located shows, held every three years, drew 142,000 people, including 27,000 (about 19 percent) international attendees in the construction, construction materials, and power transmission industries. The focus is on equipment, aggregates and ready-mixed concrete industries, as well as the range of fluid power
 
The Association of Equipment Manufacturers is the principal co-owner and producer of this event which, even by Vegas standards, is hard to describe in its sheer volume of hardware related to everything construction, especially mobile equipment of every shape and form and the seemingly unending specialized attachments.
 
IFPE 2008, co-owned and sponsored by the National Fluid Power Association, is its own show within the bigger show, focused on power transmission and motion control, including hydraulic, pneumatic, mechanical and electrical technologies. It included pavilions hosted by the Power Transmission Distributors Association, American Gear Manufacturers Association, and also a sensors pavilion. The Fluid Power Distributors Association also had a booth presence. There was a lot of international trade from both exhibitor and attendee perspectives in the IFPE portion of the show.