TCM's Shiga plant

TCM is opening a new electric forklift assembly line at its Shiga plant this year to meet increasing demand for its forklift products.

The expansion will see the factory produce 22,800 forklifts for domestic and export markets in 2008, with production rising to over 25,000 forklifts in 2010.

According to dhf intralogistik editor Wolfgang Degenhard, TCM has been the fastest-growing
of the world's top 12 forklift manufacturers for the last five years.

TCM's forklift sales grew 108% from EUR253 million (USD389 million) in 2002/03 to EUR526 million (USD808 million) in 2006/07.

TCM UK managing director Terry Robinson says the strong growth is not surprising.

"TCM has continued to show strong sales performance year on year; a result of continuing to introduce new world-class, award-winning products and continuing to build on our reputation for reliability and build quality."

The Shiga factory, in the Kansai region, is ISO9001 and ISO14001 certified. Shiga, one of TCM's four plants in Japan, has diversified from producing only forklifts to include automated guided vehicles.

In 2007, TCM opened a new drive-unit factory on the Shiga site. The factory will this year produce over 30,000 drive-units.