BT has invested nearly EUR4 million (USD5.02 million) in its Mjölby plant to cope with growing demand for hand pallet trucks.

"While production of hand pallet trucks has, for many countries, moved to the far east, BT has signalled a commitment to continued European production," a BT statement said.

Sven Wirenhammar, general manager of BT Europe's hand trucks division, said BT had added a new production line at Mjölby to increase production capacity and efficiency. Old production equipment have been replaced and certain processes and components standardised.

BT's hand pallet truck, the BT Lifter, is approaching 3,000,000 units produced since manufacturing started 60 years ago.

The investment included developing a new pump unit for the BT Lifter. The pump unit was produced using highly-automated robot cells, "with turning, milling and drilling plus high-precision machining techniques".

Last month, BT started producing its latest series of hand pallet trucks. The truck continues BT's lifetime guarantee on fork frames, introduced in 2005. The series differs from the old trucks, because it has the new pump unit that took three years to design.

The pump unit has fewer parts, which "improves reliability". The hydraulic body is cast in a single piece, improving lifting performance and avoiding risk of leakages, the statement said.

BT conducted full-load work cycle tests that showed the new pallet truck delivered 50 per cent more work cycles than its predecessor.

Finnish business news provider Esmerk reported BT has tripled forklift production over the past 15 years. The report said BT aimed to increase production capacity from 40,000 units a year to 60,000 units a year for 2006 to 2010 (Forkliftaction.com News #277).

The BT Group celebrated its 60th anniversary in April. A part of Toyota Industries Corp, BT has nearly 9,000 employees, seven production sites in four countries and annual sales of SEK15 billion (USD1,968 million).