After previously highlighting several positive swings in the UK forklift market, the Fork Lift Truck Association's (FLTA) latest analysis, a survey of FLTA members, shows a mixed picture.

The FLTA report said used forklift sales fared best for the northern summer, with 37% of respondents reporting improved orders and 14% seeing better sales margins. There was little change in orders or margins for new forklifts.

Service business orders appear to have slipped: last survey 94% reported stable conditions; this time the figure dropped to 86%. Only 2% saw improved margins, compared to 15% in the last survey, although 88% reported no change.

Another slip was in the casual hire sector, formerly the most optimistic area for the UK market. "Orders are better" responses dropped from 43% to 36%, but margins seem to be holding fast, with 82% reporting them to be at least as healthy as in the last survey.

Overall, the upward trend in market conditions, apparent in the last survey, has dampened. Where 30% of respondents reported improved business conditions in the last survey, the corresponding figure is now 20%.

By region, Ireland swung from being the most buoyant to the most pessimistic. By contrast, Scottish respondents, the previous quarter's most pessimistic, reported a shift towards stability.

"Because our surveys depend on the views of those actually making sales, they reveal many subtle but genuine patterns," FLTA chairman Brian Warbrick said.

"For this quarter, there has been no major change, but more of a 'swings and roundabouts' situation in which differences between sectors and regions are often reversing themselves. It is what we would expect when markets all over the world are continuing to demonstrate uncertainty.

"It hasn't been a particularly happy quarter for many in our industry but, equally, it hasn't raised any major cause for concern. Working together to improve standards and profitability, I'm confident our industry can ride out any temporary dips."