Developing countries, notably China and India, present the best sales opportunities for materials handling product suppliers, a new report by Freedonia Group says.
The Cleveland-based international business research company forecasts in World Material Handling Products that global materials handling product demand will expand 4.5 per cent a year to read USD117 billion in 2010.
Equipment demand will rise in developing countries because of industrialisation-related investment, increasing per capita incomes and growing manufacturing outputs.
Sales in Turkey, Mexico and Russia also are expected to be strong.
Western Europe, Japan and the USA will pick up in equipment demand because of favourable economic conditions and higher income levels, leading to increased goods consumption and manufacturing production.
The best gains will be seen in advanced materials handling products, like robots and automated, guided vehicles, software and high-end services.
The report said Germany and Japan were, overall, the major net exporters of materials handling products but Chinese and South Korean suppliers were expected to become increasingly important.
The US, Germany and Japan are the world's largest materials handling product suppliers.
World Material Handling Products is available through Freedonia Group Inc for USD5,300.
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www.freedoniagroup.com