The world materials handling equipment market remained stable at a high level in the first four months of 2012, despite declining economic conditions in Europe.

According to Jungheinrich Group, global demand amounted to 324,000 forklifts, about 2% lower than the 330,000 units for the same period last year.

Europe experienced a decline of 4%, despite rising sales volume in Eastern Europe, while North America posted an increase of 7%. The Asian market contracted by 1%.

Globally, the warehousing equipment market - Jungheinrich's domain - grew by 1%, while the internal combustion forklift market shrank by 5%.

The German forklift manufacturer says its business benefited from "the high level of capacity utilisation", especially at its Moosburg plant. The company said at its 12 June AGM that it was optimistic about the rest of the fiscal year.

"Based on the constantly stable business trend since the beginning of the year, we expect incoming orders of at least EUR2.1 billion (USD2.7 billion) and corresponding consolidated net sales matching last year's level," said Hans-Georg Frey, Jungheinrich AG's management board chairman.

"Thanks to our strategic investments of EUR100 million (USD126.6 million) in technology and sales in the period from 2012 to 2013, we have set the stage for sustainably profitable growth in the future above and beyond this," Frey explained.