Regdor b,
There are several local manufacturers, Godrej and Voltas being the largest ones, in forklift segment with approx 1500 units each sold last year, Both are also manufacturing small Warehouse trucks, and there are several other players such as Josts, Maini, Puma lift.
In recent years the Chinese have started to export trucks to India.
Indian distributors re-brand the trucks and sell it in the local market under their own brand, one major player here is Nilkamal.
Lately Kompress, a storage solution provider, also started to import warehouse trucks, mainly smaller units from China.
Total market CB and WH were just about 5000 units in 2009, so the potential for growth is good.
Imported Forklift and warehouse are becoming more popular despite a price at least twice the locally, but far less technology advances trucks.
Retail sector, mainly local due to government regulations related to investment and ownership, and Logistics will grow faster than other segments since there is a need for improve distribution and meet the growing middle class increase in consumption.
One major obstacle to growth is infrastructure; roads and powersupply are in avery bad shape and today's structure cannot support future growth.
Growth in unit terms might not be very high since India is still at low volumes, but % wise it will be one of the fastest in the world over the next decade. India need to consume 20 times today's volume to match China and 100 times Western Europe....just to give an example on the growth potential. This will not happened overnight, India is still far behind China, but the outlook for India's MHE market is bright (but difficult) indeed.........