The American Rental Association (ARA) is forecasting a 13% decline in equipment and event rental revenue this year compared to 2019, dropping to $48.7 billion in the United States.

However, the latest forecast released by the association on Nov. 12 calls for modest overall growth in 2021, ticking up 0.3% to $48.9 billion, before accelerating recovery kicks in with growth of 9.2% in 2022, 6.8% in 2023 and 4.8% in 2024 to reach $59.7 billion.

Construction and industrial rental revenue is forecast to finish 2020 with a significant hit in revenue, dropping 13.3% to $33.8 billion and a 3.3% decline is forecast for 2021 before double-digit growth of 11.2% comes in 2022.

The general tool segment weathered the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic the best and is expected to finish 2020 down 5.2% to $12.7 billion and is expected to top its 2019 revenue peak by 2022.

“The forecast shows us how hard the coronavirus pandemic hit the equipment and event rental industry. Hopefully 2021 will see us getting back some of the revenue losses we experienced in the equipment and general tool segments. However, the event segment continues to have a steep hill to climb and we will be working hard to bring more relief to that segment through government stimulus programs,” says John McClelland, ARA vice president for government affairs and chief economist.

Investment in equipment is significantly down in 2020, with a 43% decrease to $8.166 billion. Equipment spending is forecast to rebound by 17.4% in 2021 and by 46.3% in 2022 to surpass annual investment of $14 billion.