Martin Placek
Research expert covering transportation and electronics
Material handling: industrial trucks - statistics & facts
Industrial trucks flexibly transport goods and materials in factories and warehouses. The global market volume amounted to over 1.4 billion units in 2020, with Asia, Europe, and North America as the main markets. According to a 2021 survey, over 52 percent of warehouse and distribution center operators in the U.S. were planning to invest in material handling equipment in the near future, while 56 percent had already invested in forklifts and lift trucks in 2018.
The rise of electric trucks
New orders for internal combustion trucks accounted for over a third of the 1.6 million new industrial truck orders received by the industry in 2020. With about 796,200 units, warehouse trucks accounted for the largest share, and the electric truck segment was responsible for about 246,600 orders. In 2020, Asia and Europe were the main markets for electric rider trucks, with Asia recording the only growth between 2019 and 2020.Key players
Toyota, Kion, and Jungheinrich are among the key suppliers of industrial trucks. The Japanese group generated over 13 billion U.S. dollars from its lift truck segment. Kion's net income decreased to 210.9 million euros due to the coronavirus pandemic, with an order intake of over 9.4 billion euros in 2020. Jungheinrich had over 18,000 employees in 2019 and an order value of nearly four billion euros.
