Asset finance popularity rises among manufacturers

Conducted among the global top 40 industrial machinery and equipment manufacturers, the research has revealed that 76% of respondents have seen increased customer demand for asset finance when acquiring manufacturing equipment over the last two years. "Access to up-to-date technology is critical to a manufacturing company's competitive position, cost-control and productivity," said Brian Foster, head of industry finance at SFS. "By using asset finance, businesses can meet the constant demand for high-specification, tailor-made equipment in a financially sustainable way." The study also showed that usage of financing in the last 24 months varies in different regions of the world. In Europe, the use of asset finance remained static among manufacturing firms, attributable to the slow business investment environment. In contrast, the proportion of manufacturing equipment sales enabled through asset finance has risen over 2% per year in the US, and by over 15% per year in Asia. "The great difference in growth rates must be viewed in the light that asset finance is still in a relatively early stage of its development in Asia compared with the mature economies of the West," said SFS. Most respondents (93%) said they expected global interest in asset finance to increase further from their manufacturing customer base over the next two years. In particular, use of asset finance is expected to grow by over 5% annually in Europe, reflecting a previously deferred need to invest as economic confidence returns. In the US and Asia, uptake of asset finance by manufacturing firms is expected to continue to grow annually by 3% and by more than 14% respectively.