Wolfgang Degenhard has authored the dhf-intralogistik world ranking list for many years.

Toyota, KION and Jungheinrich have maintained their rankings in the top three of dhf-intralogistik's latest world ranking list while two Japanese forklift brands have now joined the leading 10 manufacturers.

Nissan Forklift Co Ltd, ranked 11th the previous year, and TCM Corporation, ranked 15th in the last list, merged into UniCarriers Corporation (Forkliftaction.com News #610) last year, enabling the combined UniCarriers banner to move to seventh place in the new world ranking list.

Another major change in the list is the disappearance of the Nacco name. The Hyster and Yale forklift brands retained their fourth place in the new list but are placed under Hyster-Yale Materials Handling Inc, the independent public company that was launched after Nacco Industries Inc spun off Hyster and Yale on 28 September 2012 (Forkliftaction.com News #586).

Hyster-Yale Materials Handling Inc now owns and operates the Nacco Materials Handling Group (NMHG) subsidiary of Nacco Industries (Forkliftacton.com News #572), the materials handling business that accounted for over 76% of Nacco's 2011 sales.

Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Forklift Trucks has dropped from sixth to eighth place, while Chinese manufacturer Heli, formerly placed eighth is now 10th on the list.

Another Asian manufacturer, Zhejiang Maximal Forklift Co Ltd (23rd), based in Hangzhou, China, has contacted dhf requesting to be included in the ranking list. However, China's Dalian Forklift Co Ltd has said it no longer wishes to be associated with the list, without specifying why.

"Due to the fact that our world rankings list (is based on) information provided by companies, and not from our estimates, we have removed Dalian from the list," say list authors Wolfgang Degenhard and Jürgen Warmbold.

Degenhard and Warmbold add that the German manufacturer Dambach Lagersysteme GmbH & Co KG, which produced narrow-aisle stackers and automated storage and retrieval systems, also asked to be removed from the list.

In May 2013, Dambach and Toyota Material Handling Europe (TMHE) agreed that narrow-aisle stackers would in future be manufactured at the TMHE plant in Mjölby, Sweden (Forkliftaction.com News #618). That means Dambach no longer manufactures industrial trucks. The company continues to manufacture automated storage and retrieval systems.

Austrian firm Bulmor Industries GmbH & Co KG, based in Perg, which last year occupied the 29th place on the list, is no longer in this year's ranking.

"As the Austrians advised us, 2012 saw some organisational restructuring. Consequently, they do not wish to provide figures for 2012, but do wish to do so again for 2013," Degenhard explains.

The Italian company Pramac also no longer appears on the latest list.

"This company recently got embroiled in a difficult situation, and explained to us ... that the balance sheet is not yet ready, following the setting up of a new company in August/September 2012, so it was not in a position to provide any figures. We shall see how this new company, now trading as PR Industrial srl, will fare in the forthcoming reporting year," Degenhard says.

The top companies in the 2014 ranking are shown here.