European forklift market is up 9pc

The European industrial truck market saw a nine per cent increase in orders last year, according to the  European Federation of Materials Handling (FEM).

After stagnating in 2013 the Western European market showed double digit growth largely due to healthy demand in Germany and the UK and a continued recovery in Spain and Italy.

Overall demand in Eastern Europe was flat though the significant decline in Russia offset the good development in other regional markets, such as Poland and the Czech Republic. FEM said that all across Europe warehouse pedestrian trucks and electric counterbalanced trucks were the key drivers of growth.