There is a lot of data coming out of LogiMAT 2025 ranging from the number of exhibitors (1,625), to the number of product launches (more than 120), to how many people attended (66,000). But there is one new number, a new metric if you will, which a number of industry players were talking about at the show - the increased presence of exhibitors from China.

The number of most interest here is the 43% jump in Chinese exhibitors between 2024 and 2025. For context, it is important to note there were 87 exhibits from China this year against 61 the previous year. And of this year’s total, Chinese-based exhibitors accounted for 5.4% of all exhibitors at the event.

Still, a 43% year-on-year increase is notable and certainly did not go unnoticed by those attending and exhibiting at LogiMAT 2025.

Heike Oder, head of trade press with Linde, tells Forkliftaction News “Chinese competition is growing and this is something which we recognise” while Arnold Vetter, managing director of German fork producer Vetter comments he “has been very surprised at the higher than previous Chinese presence” at LogiMAT.

The Chinese exhibitors themselves are keen to let manufacturers selling and producing within Europe, know that new competition has arrived.

Gene Li, sales manager with China’s biggest forklift manufacturer, Heli, explains the company is ready to “challenge other brands in Europe”.

“We are ready,” Li says. “We have a large focus on the Chinese market but we are moving into the European market and bringing our equipment not just to the large companies with big fleets, but also smaller companies.

“We have some interest from France, Hungary and Poland and we are now ready to launch into Europe.”

Representing battery maker ROYPOW, which increased its sales in 2024 to more than 10,000 against 900 units in 2018, sales manager Jason Liu is unequivocal: “We want to be an international brand and not just a Chinese brand”.

ROYPOW currently counts the US as its biggest market outside of China, having started selling there five years ago, followed by Europe, having entered three years ago.

Jack Yang, vice president of sales with Chinese forklift manufacturer UN Forklift, explains that the Chinese domestic market is “really tough” and it is now seeking to establish a stronger presence in Europe and the US.

While many Chinese manufacturers - and companies which produce their products in China - are looking to establish new manufacturing bases outside of China as a way to mitigate against the US administration’s new tariffs on Chinese products, UN Forklift has no such ambitions.

“We have no plans of moving manufacturing to America,” Yang insists. “We see our biggest opportunities being in Europe and South America, especially Argentina. We have a lot of inquiries from Argentina, which we think will be a big market for us.”

Among those exhibiting at LogiMAT was Chinese manufacturer and Toyota subsidiary Tailift, which attended the show for the first time in six years to launch its FBD internal combustion counterbalance pneumatic tyre forklift into the European market.

Director and CEO Amy Lin tells Forkliftaction News the forklift is already available in China - where it is produced - as well as the US, but the company is now targeting the European market.

Lin adds the US has been Tailift’s main export market, with a warehouse in Houston, but was now seeking distributors across Europe an other areas as it looks to expand the market for its Chinese-made forklifts, notably into India, Turkey and Brazil.

Also among the Chinese exhibitors was lithium-ion battery producer BSL Battery, with EMEA sales manager Kary Chen noting “we are happy to see so many exhibitors here from China”.

“Two or three years ago, there weren’t a lot of Chinese suppliers here, but that’s changed this year,” Chen adds. “There are increasingly more players from China in this industry.

“Buyers are more open to buying Chinese-produced products than they have in the past.”

Xenia Kleinert, head of marketing with LogiMAT organiser Euroexpo Messe-und Kongress-GmbH, says of the number of Chinese exhibitors: "The number has increased significantly, which is certainly also due to our activities in Shenzhen", referring to the next event in China, April 24-26.

It is worth noting that ProMat, the US equivalent to LogiMAT, this year had 120 exhibitors from China, a 50% increase on the previous event in 2023.

Our complete gallery from LogiMAT can be viewed here.