Industrial Truck Shipments by Region

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What is an industrial truck?

Industrial trucks are vehicles used to transport inventory and materials within a facility, either horizontally or vertically. These include, but are not limited to, forklifts, side loaders, reach trucks, order pickers, Very Narrow Aisle (VNA) trucks, and tow tractors.

What is the market outlook for industrial trucks?

Global shipments of industrial trucks will grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 1.1% from 2024 to 2030, with significant variance across regions. North America and Europe will see a declining CAGR in shipments, while Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa will see growth over the same period.

In 2024, ABI Research expects about 2.2 million industrial trucks to ship worldwide, with that number only increasing to 2.4 million by 2030 due to reduced uptake among industrial firms in North America and Europe, as well as little growth in Asia-Pacific.

Which regions are adopting industrial trucks most rapidly?

The highest growth in industrial truck shipments is expected in Latin America and the Middle East & Africa, with a CAGR to 2030 of 8.2% and 15.8%, respectively. Asia-Pacific will see a modest CAGR of 2.3%, and North America and Europe are expected to see a decline in shipments, exhibiting a CAGR of -0.8% and -1.4% through the same period.

The North American and European industrial truck markets are exhibiting similar trends as one another, with both adopting autonomous industrial trucks first. While growth in manual industrial truck shipments is still expected in these regions for another 2 to 3 years, adoption of autonomous industrial trucks is set to cannibalize these, creating a negative growth in shipments of manual industrial trucks around 2027.

Asia-Pacific countries will adopt autonomous industrial trucks at a slower rate than North America and Europe, due to higher labor availability and lower relative labor cost, but deployments will catch up toward the end of the decade. Growth in manual industrial truck shipments will remain positive, but slowly decrease as more autonomous models are deployed.

Industrial trucks are going electric

The number of electric industrial trucks continues to grow as battery technology and charging infrastructure develops. Roughly 71% of industrial truck shipments globally are now electric, and this proportion will only continue to increase, surpassing 88% by 2030.