Chinese demand for electric forklifts is increasing as end users embrace environmental-friendly trucks, says a Chinese magazine editor.

Roy Jia, editor of International Construction Machinery magazine, says, in a report titled "China Market Report on Lift Trucks Industry", that 4,655 electric forklifts and 1,969 internal combustion forklifts were imported from January to August 2006.

In contrast, China-based manufacturers exported 5,708 electric forklifts and 10,294 internal combustion forklifts in the same period.

"There is a big gap between the number of exported electric forklifts and exported internal combustion forklifts," Jia said. "[China] needs to improve its manufacturing standards of electric forklifts. Meanwhile, quality of Chinese internal combustion forklifts has approached international standards."

According to the report, 67,679 forklifts were produced in China from January to August 2006, up 37 per cent on the same period in 2005. The top three Chinese manufacturers were Zhejiang HangCha Construction Machinery Joint Stock Ltd Co, Anhui Heli Joint Stock Ltd Co and Hangzhou DingLi Machinery Co Ltd.

The top three foreign manufacturers were Linde, Hyundai and Komatsu, the report said.

Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Liaoning and Shanxi were named the top five forklift producing regions.

"Hangzhou Zhejiang moved from second-highest producing forklift manufacturer to top rank, indirectly showing how dynamic the Chinese forklift market is," Jia said.

While China was recognised as a forklift-producing nation, it still had a "long distance" to go before becoming a leading forklift producer.

"China's forklift industry needs to make efforts to improve its production technology and create an international trademark."

However, Jia was optimistic about continued growth in domestic forklift consumption.

"With the development of the economy and increased labour costs, many jobs will be operated by forklifts instead of manpower."

Japan was named the top forklift exporter to China with 3,268 forklifts exported in January-August 2006. Other top exporters were Germany (1,013), England (650), France (520), Korea (451) and the US (389).