The coronavirus has hampered progress, but the Fendt plant at Marktoberdorf is on target to produce slightly more than 18,700 new tractors this year.

While short of the well-reported target of 20,000 in 2020, and down on the 18,940 units in 2019, it is still the second highest number in the company’s history, which in this challenging year must be considered as good.

Speaking at the press launch of the 200 Vario, Momentum planter and MT1100 tracked tractors from the Fendt Forum, Christoph Gröblinghoff, vice president, brand head Fendt EME (Europe, Middle East), said there are tractor markets in Europe with increasing or stable volumes such as in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Poland and Austria.

“There are also volume markets with double-digit market declines in some cases,” he added. “This includes France, Italy, UK, Spain, Norway, Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania.”

Overall, he expects the European market to decline by around 6.0% from 171,000 in 2019 to somewhere in the region of 160,000 units this year. Some 16,700 of this year’s Fendt production was delivered to customers in this region, and the company claims a 10.5% share (9.6% in 2019) of the market.

In Germany, Fendt reckons to command top spot with a 28.4% share of the market above 51hp. The higher the horsepower the more impressive the figures and Fendt claims a 40.1% share of the market above 200hp. Also, every second tractor sold in Germany this year from 400hp is a Fendt 900 or 1000 Vario.

A region where the company reckons to have doubled the numbers during the last two years is North America, where it now commands a market share to 7.1%. The company expects the new MT1100s will not only help Fendt to improve its share of the tracked tractor market in North America, but also globally.

Looking ahead, the coronavirus will continue to affect things well into 2021 is the expectation, but the German tractor maker is confident of quickly exceeding the 20,000 threshold at Marktoberdorf.

Looking even further into the future, the Fendt plant was designed to make a maximum of 30,000 tractors a year. Via a virtual question link, I asked whether this could be a goal for 2030?

“I would be disappointed if it takes Fendt 10 years to reach 30,000 tractors,” said outgoing AGCO boss Martin Richenhagen, who added he’d very much like to get there earlier. “I expect much quicker growth for Fendt and higher numbers than 30,000, but this is a good starting point.”

After 16 years a CEO of AGCO, Martin Richenhagen retires at the end of this year.   

Speaking at his last AGCO press conference, ahead of his retirement at the end of this year, Mr Richenhagen added there is much to think about for final tractor assembly and whether some of this can be done in North America or Brazil.

That will be a decision for chief operating officer Eric Hansotia, who assumes his new role as AGCO CEO in January 2021.