TCM's Hiroshi Narukawa (right) and NTP Forklifts Australia directors John Naffine (left) and Nick Perdelis (seated in forklift) during Mr Narukawa's Australia visit.

Japanese industrial forklift manufacturer TCM has identified the Australian marine, transport and container handling industry as one of its key growth markets and plans to introduce new products in Australia to boost its local market share.

TCM's regional manager for Asia Pacific Hiroshi Narukawa has just visited his company's Australian national distributor, NTP Forklifts Australia. Here is an excerpt of an interview with Narukawa.

Q: Where does Australia rank in your organisation?

A: Australia is an increasingly important market for TCM. Our association with Australia goes back 40 years, to 1965, when we became the first Japanese materials handling company to enter the country. Our initial focus was on Victoria and Queensland, with Japanese trading house Kanematsu responsible for selling and servicing the products. We've come a long way in the last five years since teaming up with national distributor NTP Forklifts Australia.

Q: To what do you ascribe your Australian success?

A: It's threefold; our strategy, our products and the standing of our Australian partner. When developing our strategy, we were realistic enough to concede that most of the metropolitan markets were accounted for, with limited opportunity to win business and grow market share. But Australia's a big country, with many important - and certainly back then, under-serviced - regional centres. We agreed our initial focus would be on those markets and it has certainly been a strategically sound decision. Despite our growing share of the metropolitan market, TCM enjoys great success in regional Australia.

A major plus is that we manufacture only materials handling and earthmoving equipment. We understand the needs of the market. We offer perhaps the most expansive product range - currently 118 models - in the industry and we are forever fine-tuning and improving our offerings. And NTP Forklifts Australia has provided the level of customer service that translates into customer satisfaction and repeat business.

Q: What sectors have you identified to grow your local market share?

A: An increasingly important sector with strong growth opportunities is the marine, transport and container handling industry. We're particularly successful in this 11-tonne to 43-tonne sector in Japan, where we hold a 60 per cent market share. We'll employ what we've learnt at home - such as getting involved with the developers of, say, a shipping wharf, at the design stage, offering advice and recommendations for layout of the new facility and then recommending the most suitable products for the customer.

Q: More generally, what new products do you see driving TCM's growth strategy in Australia over the next few years?

A: The container handling and large capacity forklifts will enjoy added focus, with new designs and enhancements to the 11-tonne to 43-tonne range, including a new 42-tonne reach stacker, on the drawing boards. All the machines will be fully equipped with high-tech features that respond to the increased demand for larger, heavier loading capacities at many of today's modern harbours. Our largest current model, the 43-tonne forklift, can stack up to five loaded containers.

On a general note, our policy is to regularly fine-tune and enhance existing products and introduce new models every three years, as opposed to the industry standard of eight to 10 years. This places TCM technology at the forefront of forklifts and has been responsible for innovations such as the wide view mast and the four-directional four-wheel counterbalanced forklift.

We'll continue to innovate and deliver reliable and robust forklifts that cost less to run and maintain.

Q: What changes do you envisage for materials handling in future years?

A: Materials handling will continue to evolve into something more than simply moving materials from one location to another. Yes, we'll still do that, but these days it's systematic, value-added integration between the manufacturing process and material flow that makes the difference between ordinary and optimum performance.