Organisers of next year’s Plantworx show have also agreed to move the event back to June 2022.

Hillhead event director Richard Bradbury said: “The health and safety of exhibitors, visitors, contractors and employees is our number one priority and with the peak of the epidemic predicted to coincide with the show in June, this would be severely compromised.

“Following an extensive consultation process, the decision has been taken to delay the event by a year to allow market conditions to stabilise and to best support the construction and quarrying industry during this challenging period.”

Rob Oliver, chief executive of the Construction Equipment Association, said: “Of course we didn’t want to postpone our show, but after discussions with the Hillhead management we concluded that it would be in the best interests of our exhibitors and the wider construction and quarrying industries if we reset the clock and allowed Hillhead the diary space in 2021.

“Few people expected the impact of coronavirus just a couple of weeks ago, so we thought it best to make a quick decision so the industry had some clarity.

“As a trade association now, we need to focus our resources on helping our members through the unprecedented challenges arising from coronavirus which affects both lives and livelihoods”.