The KION Group aims to build on its successful performance in 2017.

The KION Group continues to benefit from a healthy global market for industrial trucks and supply chain solutions, registering a notable increase in orders over the first nine months of 2018.

At EUR6.369 billion (USD7.25 billion), the total value of order intake in the first three quarters of the year was up by 11.8% on the same period last year. The rise would have been higher - 15% - had it not been for negative currency effects.

KION's order book as of September 30 was up 23.6% from the end of 2017.

The company reports that the global market for industrial trucks registered strong growth of 13.6% in the first three quarters of 2018, with all regions making a contribution. Sales of electric forklifts were up by 11%, while ICE truck sales rose 10.3%. Warehouse trucks registered even stronger growth of 17.4%, predominantly due to the healthy demand for smaller entry-level models.

KION also reports that demand remained high for warehouse automation, sorting solutions, and automated goods transport solutions. The steady growth of e-commerce continued to have a significant impact, as did the related realignment of many supply chains. A continuously increasing number of companies is investing in the expansion and optimisation of their warehousing and logistics capacity to shorten lead times, improve the efficiency of the flow of goods, and widen their product range.

"The sustained pace of growth in the market for industrial trucks and supply chain solutions underlines the KION Group's potential for the future," says CEO Gordon Riske. "Thanks to our excellent product pipeline and our global activities in development, manufacturing, and sales, we are ideally placed to benefit over the long term from the huge global demand for our products."

Despite the temporary bottlenecks at individual suppliers and the related production inefficiencies in the Industrial Trucks & Services segment, the KION Group expects to achieve the outlook for the year as published in the 2017 combined management report. In 2018, the KION Group aims to build on its successful performance in 2017 and, based on the outlook for market growth, achieve further increases in order intake, revenue and adjusted EBIT.