Market Development

Against the backdrop of a continuing challenging macro environment in Europe and in major emerging markets, economies are in transition as rebalancing and sovereign deleveraging is underway. Additionally, global growth has been losing momentum as the year has progressed, thus affecting material handling markets and business confidence. Although the global industrial truck market maintained a robust level of 490,000 units sold in the first six months of 2012, it posted a decline of 3% versus the high levels seen in the same period of the preceding year. On a quarterly basis, global demand for industrial trucks dropped by 6% in Q2/2012 compared to Q2/2011 and was 1% below the previous quarter. As differences persisted across regions, stronger regional markets of North America, Japan, and Southeast Asia were unable to cushion declines particularly seen in Western European and Chinese markets. At mid-year 2012, overall demand in Western Europe fell by 9% impacted by the ongoing weakness in Southern European markets. Industrial truck sales in Eastern Europe edged down by 3% in the first six months of 2012 on the back of weaker second quarter demand. The North American market grew by 9% in the first six months of 2012, while South & Central America remained 20% below the previous year’s level. The market in China experienced a further slowdown in demand resulting in a decline of 10% in the first two quarters of 2012.