Production of two new Linde forklifts has begun in South Carolina

KION North America this week celebrated the start of production of two of its newest forklifts. Assembled at the company's South Carolina facility, the Linde Series 1347 and Linde Series 1319 were initially announced at ProMat in April.

KION North America has spent the past two years reconfiguring its production lines and completing facility upgrades to boost its production capacity. The goal is to increase capacity to 12,000 forklifts a year by 2020, up from about 3,000 in 2015.

"After months of reconstruction and reorganisation, I'm proud of our team and their dedication to get us here," says Daniel Schlegel, vice president of operations at KION North America. "We're excited to increase our manufacturing footprint in South Carolina with two new excellent Linde products."

The research, development and engineering of the new trucks is the result of three years of collaboration between a global project team comprised of members from the United States, China and Germany.

The Linde Series 1347 is an electric-powered counterbalance sit-down truck and the Linde Series 1319 is an LP-powered torque converter forklift.

"Successfully bringing these trucks to market has been a day I've looked forward to for so long," says Vincent Halma, president and CEO of KION North America. "From conceptualisation and production to now sales and delivery, I could not be more proud to celebrate this milestone with our team."