The KION Group says it exploited its strong global position and continued growing in the first nine months of 2012, with the total value of its orders jumping 0.6% from the previous year to EUR3.487 billion (USD4.467 billion).

Revenue grew 8.9% year-on-year to EUR3.439 billion (USD4.404 billion) and earnings before interest and tax rose 22.8% to EUR319 million (USD408 million) for the nine months.

According to group intelligence, the global market for new industrial trucks in the first three quarters of 2012 was about 718,000 units, 2.9 % lower than the corresponding period of 2011.

European demand fell to 237,000 units, 6.2% down on the first three quarters of 2011. In the first nine months of 2012, demand in western Europe declined 7.4 % year-on-year to 196,000 units, owing to the weakness of southern European economies.

Demand in the eastern European market was at the same level as in the first three quarters of 2011 at 41,000 units. The American market grew slightly to 168,000 trucks, an increase of 1.3% on the same period the previous year. Demand in Asian markets contracted by 3.8 % year-on-year to 282,000 trucks.

KION Group reported an order intake of 107,000 new trucks in the first nine months of 2012, compared to 107,800 trucks in 2011. The group outperformed the global market, which declined by 2.9% over the period in terms of units sold.

That was driven by the group's market success in western Europe and, in China, eastern Europe and South America, where the KION brand companies consolidated their strong market position.