 Delegates at the 20th World Industrial Truck Statistics (WITS) Conference |
China's Anhui HELI was among the key participants in the recent 20th World Industrial Truck Statistics (WITS) Conference held in Chengdu, China.
The event brought together Manufacturer Administration Committee members from the Chinese Industrial Truck Association (CITA), Industrial Truck Association (ITA), Japanese Industrial Vehicles Association (JIVA) and European Federation of Materials Handling (FEM).
The annual event alternates between the member organisations, and this year's session comes as China's role as a producer of industrial vehicles increases, with the country now responsible for around a third of the global annual production and sales.
CITA was represented by HELI, Hangcha, LiuGong, Noblelift, EP and Tailift, while the FEM representatives included Crown, CESAB SPA, Toyota Europe, STILL SAS, KION and Jungheinrich. Toyota (North America), Linde (North America), Mitsubishi Caterpillar and Nacco were there for the ITA, while JIVA delegates came from Toyota and Nichiyu.
During this WITS conference, delegates discussed the formulation of ISO standards, and planned further collaboration on vital interests around the industrial vehicle industry.
Dejin Zhang, president of Anhui HELI and current chairman of CITA, gave an overview of the state of the market and economic trends.
Total Chinese forklifts sales are expected to exceed 350,000 units in 2017, which is a 30.67% increase compared to 2016, he said. "In the future, the Chinese forklift industry is extending (into related markets) like accessories, maintenance services, equipment leasing, second-hand vehicles and so on. Due to the increase of the proportion of electrical eco-friendly (products) in the future, as well as the (emergence) of intelligent and digital products, the competition is getting fierce, which will require a higher standard of enterprise capacity."
On environmental protection, Zhang said: "With the enhancement of enterprises' environmental awareness, there is more room for electrical products development. Also, new energy and intelligent development will become critical to the industry development."
The 2018 WITS conference, hosted by FEM, will be held in Belgium from 13 -15 September.