Serbia’s financial leasing market continues to be dominated by transport-related assets, with passenger vehicles, trucks and buses accounting for the majority of leased equipment at the end of the first quarter of 2026. Passenger cars represented 45.2% of leased assets, while trucks and buses accounted for an additional 35.9%. Other categories recorded significantly smaller shares, including construction machinery at 7.3%, agricultural equipment at 3.4%, and production machinery at 2.4%.
Transport Fleet Renewal Leads Leasing Activity
The structure of leasing activity indicates that Serbian businesses are primarily using leasing to finance fleet renewal and logistics capacity improvements. The strong share of transport assets reflects the importance of road freight, construction and distribution activities in the economy. The limited proportion of production machinery leasing points to weaker activity in factory automation and manufacturing capacity expansion. Commercial companies remain the dominant users of leasing services, while entrepreneurs accounted for 7.1% of leasing customers.
Industrial Equipment Financing Remains Limited
The small contribution of production equipment suggests potential for banks, leasing providers and machinery manufacturers to develop longer-term financing solutions for industrial investments. Such products could become more relevant for companies with export agreements or multinational customers that provide more predictable revenue streams and support investment planning.
Rising energy prices and higher costs for imported equipment could reduce demand for non-essential fleet upgrades. At the same time, construction activity linked to Expo 2027 is expected to support leasing demand for trucks, cranes and specialised machinery over the coming quarters.
