3.3 Market for industrial trucks

Global market sees record unit sales

Worldwide demand for industrial trucks remained relatively unaffected by economic uncertainties in 2011. Global sales rose by 23 per cent year on year to reach a record 977,000 units (2010: 796,000 units). The recovery in the markets seen in 2010 continued in the first six months of 2011, with order intake amounting to 506,500 units. There was a slowdown in the second half of the year however, and sales declined to 470,600 units. Over half of market growth was generated by the markets in western Europe and China. Eastern European markets also achieved high growth rates, driven above all by Russia. The high-growth regions underpinned their importance as markets and continued to stabilise in the global market. Order intake in the industrialised countries, above all Germany and the United States, was buoyant and grew at a faster rate than the global market.

German market above pre-crisis level

The western European market benefited from strong demand in the first half of 2011 and generated growth of 26 per cent over the year as a whole. Order intake in western Europe came to 278,400 units, a significant improvement on the 222,000 units achieved in 2010. Around 12,200 units were accounted for by the Turkish market, which has counted as part of western Europe instead of Asia since 2011 following a restructuring for statistical purposes. Making up 38 per cent of order intake in western Europe, sales of counterbalance trucks with electric motors or IC engines were driven by the benign investment climate and rose more sharply than sales of warehouse technology. Although the overall picture was positive in 2011, the situation was very mixed in the individual countries as it had been in 2010. Germany reported an order intake of 76,400 units, thereby surpassing the market volume seen in the record year of 2007 and remaining the biggest driver of growth in western Europe. Following only moderate growth in 2010, unit sales in the French market went up by 20 per cent to 55,800 units but was 10 per cent below the volume generated in 2007. In contrast, demand for industrial trucks in Spain and Italy was very subdued compared with 2010, rising by 4 per cent and 6 per cent respectively.

Continued upturn in eastern Europe

The positive trend in the eastern European markets seen in 2010 continued, with growth of 36 per cent to 54,500 units in the year under review. Russia was the main driver of the upturn with unit sales rising to 23,000, which equates to a year-on-year rise of 51 per cent. In Poland, the second largest market in eastern Europe, sales advanced encouragingly from 9,700 units to 12,000 units in 2011. While growth rates were generally high across all product segments, unit sales of counterbalance trucks with IC engines were especially buoyant owing to continued pent-up demand.

Brazil stagnates at a high level

The Brazilian market was slightly below the record level achieved in 2010 and, despite high growth in warehouse technology, suffered a small decline of 1 per cent to 22,600 units in 2011. However, the other markets in Central and South America were more upbeat and contributed to the region's year-on-year rise in demand of 23 per cent.

Encouraging growth in the USA

Against a background of increasing investment in capital equipment, the US industrial truck market expanded by 25 per cent to 155,000 units. All product types benefited from this upturn.

Chinese market continues to drive growth

China, which is the largest single market worldwide, accounted for almost two-thirds of Asia's entire order intake last year. While it did not grow at the same rapid pace as it had in 2010, the Chinese market expanded by 19 per cent to 238,400 units in the year under review. Classic IC trucks remained the dominant segment and the main source of growth in absolute terms. As far as warehouse technology was concerned, there was greater demand for efficient trucks and intralogistics solutions, as evidenced by extremely high growth of 41 per cent. Despite the difficult conditions in 2011, the Japanese market also increased by 15 per cent to 67,000 units, but was about a quarter down on the record figure reported in 2007.