I have hear of it lately and it's great news then. Tradition and Innovation, Hybrid and Beyond. You can explore the progress in Toyota.

The Toyota & BT trucks being manufactured in China are only for the CHINESE market, there not being exported around the world.

China is a big expanding market & it makes sense to have a strong manufacturing / assembly base & local dealer network to support the products your selling.

Counter balance's over 5 ton capacity for the rest of the world will be US built.
Smaller capacity counter balance's will be either Italian or French built depending on size of truck.

In today's economic times- price seems to win no- matter what. Whoever can supply the less expensive lift wins (CHEAP)- this is what's giving China the edge.

And swoop is right- backdoor pricing on parts & service is exactly how Toyota's been making it's headway- price the lift just low enough to attract a good market share, then bang'em with price for every dealer protected part on the machine.

I'd like to know how every other industrialized country who respects people & mother Earth is supposed the compete with a country who respects nothing but green. Terrible working conditions, little pay, no regulations on pollution, etc- the list goes on. All of these little things cost something called MONEY- this is what gives China it's advantage- there's no cost for these things because THEY DON'T EXIST IN CHINA!

you're probably right when it comes to economics, but its also more about the manufacturing load from Japan. It would be cost-effective to turn to off-shore plants to cater to the market where the units are assembled (shorter lead time) to buyers and distributors.

it's not so much about the china forklift industy as it is about most corporations now are farming out thier labor to china. That is a well known fact. When corporations bid for labor costs they always tend to go to the lowest bidder. Seems china is the lucky winner at the moment. You can rest assured if another country came up with lower labor cost china would loose it to them.
Build em cheaper, and charge more for it is the motto these days unfortunately. Quality control and material craftsmanship is out the window. And it's not just the forklift industry, it's all across the board on just about anything consumers buy these days.
I will say that toyota does price thier machines pretty low compared to other brands but they do make up for it when it comes to repair costs and parts pricing.

You are right,how did you know much about China forklift industry?

if you're talking about the new series 8 four tonner, (N) then yes.
they are ASSEMBLED in China but with all the major components like the engine, transmission (powertrain) are from Japan.