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CECE: Driving global progress through international collaboration
22 January 2025
Through international partnerships, CECE highlights how it secures early insights into key global developments shaping the construction equipment industry.

The European construction equipment industry operates on a global scale, reflecting its multinational nature. Companies look to CECE, their European representative, to mirror this international approach.
While serving as the industry’s voice in Brussels is a key role, it is equally important to engage in global collaboration. Partnerships with trade associations outside Europe are crucial for staying informed about emerging technical standards and political developments that shape the global construction equipment market. This collaboration is facilitated by three groups that promote dialogue and leverage synergies for the shared benefit of the associations and the industries they represent.
Economy and politics
On the economic and political side, the GACE, formerly known as the International Associations Committee (IAC), is the discussion body. Its rebranding was decided at the Tokyo meeting hosted in spring 2024 by CEMA Japan during CSPI-EXPO. lt meets annually with the leaders of the global associations, and its organisation is hosted on a rotating basis.
Following the wish of its member associations to make the GACE more operational, the organisation has managed to become more proactive, most of all around the issue of global trade facilitation, with the decision to join forces on the MAC Protocol, for which the GACE discussed and agreed a memorandum of understanding, currently signed by CECE, AEM and CEMA.
Common issues for the industry currently being discussed – and to be discussed at the next meeting at bauma 2025, hosted by CECE – are: electrification and decarbonisation, human capital and young talents in the construction industry and the global regulatory agenda.
Technical cooperation
The Joint Technical Liaison Meeting (JTLM) serves as a key forum for international collaboration in the construction equipment industry. This long-standing event brings together technical experts from the different regions of the globe to discuss and exchange information on the latest regulatory novelties. Held annually and hosted every year in a different region of the world, the JTLM has become a not-to-be-missed global event for construction equipment manufacturers.
For the past 34 years, product safety and compliance specialists, including CECE representatives, have gathered to foster cooperation on product safety, compliance, and technical standards between the participating organisations.
The next JTLM annual event will take place on 2-4 April 2025, in Innsbruck (Austria), this time hosted in Europe by CECE. The event is expected to gather around 60 delegates to discuss a wide range of technical issues, particularly focusing on the new regulations in force in Europe. Over three days of intense discussions, participants will exchange information on topics such as machinery product compliance with new regulations, standards, and other national requirements.
Specifically, key items on the agenda refer to updates on Machinery Regulation, circular economy, chemical regulations, air quality and decarbonisation. The 2025 JTLM agenda will also cover the new rules on product liability, NRMM road circulation and outdoor noise emissions, together with the state of play of the implementation of the batteries and F-gases regulations. Additionally, the JTLM report will cover the new framework for industrial data sharing, cybersecurity requirements and integration of artificial intelligence in machinery products.
In addition to CECE, the JTLM membership includes some of the most influential associations in the field, such as:
- The United States Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM)
- Committee for European Construction Equipment (CECE)
- Japan Construction Equipment Manufacturers Association (CEMA)
- Korea Construction Equipment Manufacturers Association (KOCEMA)
- China Construction Machinery Association (CCMA)
- Indian Construction Equipment Manufacturers Association (ICEMA)
- Australia Construction & Mining Equipment Industry Group (CMEIG)
Statistics
A third fundamental leg of this global collaboration is the Intercontinental Statistics Committee (ISC), whose members are CECE, KOCEMA (Korea), CEMA (Japan) and AEM (North America). The main objective of the ISC is to co-ordinate the worldwide statistics programmes jointly run by the four organizations over 35 different products in the construction equipment sector. Current projects include efforts to map electric machines in global statistics. The next meeting will take place on 10th April 2025, at bauma in Munich.
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