After a strong recovery in the past two years, the European industrial truck market declined by 6% in 2012, with demand weighed down by continued uncertainty over the sovereign debt crisis.

The Western European market decreased by 7%, while Eastern Europe remained stable supported by growth in the Russian market.

According to FEM (European Federation of Materials Handling), core European markets weakened, with Germany, France and Italy registering declines. All product categories showed a similar trend and only rider trucks proved to be more stable than the overall European trend.

WITS, the worldwide statistical reporting program which tracks orders and shipments of industrial trucks worldwide and collates data from six trade groups, notes that Europe received 310,503 industrial truck orders in 2012. Of that number, 57,769 were from Class I; 32,940 from Class 2; 151,997 from Class 3 and 67,797 from Class 4/5.

In 2009, Europe recorded 200,311 truck orders; in 2010, 267,436 orders and in 2011, 330,616.