Linde has blamed 'weak industrial truck markets' for declining materials handling sales and earnings in the first half of 2002.

The company, in its latest financial results released last week, said the regressive trend in industrial truck markets continued but did slow in the second quarter.

Demand in Asia was on the rise, where new forklift orders grew more than 20 percent, a result of restructuring in south-east Asia through Linde's cooperation with Komatsu Forklift. Demand slipped below 2001 levels in Europe (down nine percent) and the USA (down 11 percent).

Linde's three materials handling divisions - Linde Material Handling, Still and FIAT OM - saw combined sales fall 2.7 percent to EUR1.442 billion (USD1.42 billion) in the 2002 first half, compared to EUR1.482 billion (USD1.46 billion) for the first half in 2001.

Orders received dropped 5.8 percent to EUR1.534 billion (USD1.51 billion) from EUR1.628 billion (USD1.6 billion) in 2001. Linde predicted growth in the second half of 2002 from new product releases, including the 39x forklift, debuted at CeMAT in Germany this year.

The materials handling divisions' operating result decreased from EUR106 million (USD104.3 million) to EUR58 million (USD57.1 million). While full-year 2002 sales and earnings would remain below 2001's figures, Linde said the earnings decline would slow considerably in the second half.

Linde's total group sales for the half decreased 2.9 percent to EUR4.118 billion (USD4.05 billion) from EUR4.240 billion (USD4.17 billion), which the company blamed mostly on materials handling.