The world materials handling market will increase 6.2 percent a year to become a USD108 billion industry by 2006, according to projections in "World Material Handling", a new study by the Freedonia Group.

The positive future represented a significant recovery from the sluggish early 2000s performance, which was impacted by the global economic slowdown. An improved world economy would fuel the turnaround, bringing accelerated demand for goods and creating opportunities for suppliers of goods-handling products and services, the report said.

The economic recovery would most benefit the "mature, cyclical" markets of the industrialised nations, including the USA, Canada, and Western Europe and nations in developed Asia/Pacific. Developing countries would see firming commodity prices and rising demand for electronics, consumer durables and other items.

The Freedonia report said the fastest per-annum growth would occur in Asia/Pacific, where numerous countries were undergoing rapid industrialisation and where demand had been suppressed since the region's financial crisis of 1997-1998. Eastern Europe would also register above-average growth in materials handling demand, as consumer and business markets expanded.

World Material Handling (395 pages) is available for USD4700 from The Freedonia Group, Inc. For details, contact Corinne Gangloff on email pr@freedoniagroup.com, or visit www.freedoniagroup.com.