Last year’s resurgent performance among the companies in our annual Top 20 Lift Truck Suppliers list, which was based on 2021 sales, was completely understandable. The overall lift truck market, after being disrupted by shutdowns and other pandemic restrictions in 2020, grew quickly during 2021 as companies ordered more lift trucks to try to keep up with supply chain commitments.
The pent-up demand, it turns out, wasn’t just a one-year blip, and likely carried over into 2022. As indicated by the numbers in our 2023 Top 20 Lift Truck Suppliers list, based on 2022 revenue, most of the Top 20 suppliers continued growing sales in 2022, though many expanded at a slower rate compared to the previous year. Pallet Truck With Hand Brake
Some vendors did acknowledge their 2022 revenues were bolstered by unfilled order bookings from 2021, but others just plain grew sales as end-user companies looked to bring in new trucks and technologies to find further efficiencies for operations.
The continued momentum into 2022 isn’t a complete surprise. Earlier this year, the Industrial Truck Association (ITA), which tracks North American unit sales for member companies, announced that ITA members sold 344,330 units in North America during 2022 across Classes 1 to 5, trailing the “historic” record of 347,677 units sold in 2021 by just slightly more than 3,000 units.
Continued demand for lift trucks makes sense, given the megatrends in today’s commerce. The big surge in e-commerce seen in 2020 and early 2021 slowed its pace as consumers returned to stores, but any form of omni-channel distribution or retail replenishment is going to be highly dependent on efficient pallet moves and accurate case picking, and that means forklifts, orderpickers and “operator-up” models are in need to keep goods flowing to consumers with efficiency and accuracy.
It’s also worth noting that the OEMs on this list are offering some advanced technologies and automated and semi-automated truck features, which help make operators and fleets more efficient and connected. Many of the largest suppliers offer fully autonomous units, or semi-autonomous features like remote advance, which also increase productivity.
There are plenty of simpler Class III trucks being sold, but the major OEMs and their dealer networks are also focused on helping customers with issues like fleet throughput and performance monitoring, or space optimization, not just selling them the latest, greatest truck.
Conducted annually, our Top 20 Lift Truck Suppliers list is based on a questionnaire we send out to suppliers in May, combined with research on published numbers from publicly held vendors. For more details on our criteria and process, see page 35.
Toyota Industries Corporation (TICO) again tops our list at No. 1. The company, which includes the Toyota and Raymond brands, saw its revenue rise from $15.92 billion in fiscal 2021 to $16.85 billion for fiscal 2022, a roughly 6% gain coming off a strong previous year. The company sold 316,582 units across all lift truck classes in its fiscal year 2022.
On the product front last year, Toyota announced 22 new electric trucks in January and released other new electric trucks later in the year. In October, TMH also announced Toyota Assist, a suite of advanced features to support safe operation, with technology for pedestrian and object detection, and active stability control as part of the suite. In May, TMH also announced it was partnering with Cornell University’s College of Engineering to develop a learning studio that incorporates Toyota equipment to provide immersive engineering education.
At No. 2, KION’s 2022 lift truck revenue, based on its 2022 annual report figure for its Industrial Trucks & Services business, came in $7.82 billion, converted from €7.35 billion. In its annual report, KION noted that the strong result was aided by “good progress made on working through the sizeable order book built up during 2021” although it also added that its services business grew by 9.5%.
In third place, Jungheinrich AG had revenue for 2022 of $5.08 billion, up from $4.8 billion, converted from Euros. The company stated it sold 128,800 trucks units in 2022. In the Americas, where Jungheinrich products are distributed under partnership with Mitsubishi Logisnext Americas Group, a new automatic guided vehicle (AGV) high reach stacker was introduced.
The partners also launched a new five-year powertrain warranty as standard on all Jungheinrich-branded Class I and II warehouse products, including electric cushion and pneumatic tire, stand-up counterbalanced, reach trucks, turret trucks and orderpickers.
Crown Equipment came in fourth this year, with $4.69 billion in fiscal year 2022 revenue, up from $4.01 billion the previous year, a 17% increase.
Mitsubishi Logisnext came in fifth place on our list, with 2022 revenue of $4.63 billion for its 2022 fiscal year ended March 31, 2023, up from $4.04 billion in 2021 revenue. Logisnext, sold 112,000 units across classes I-V. Logisnext offers multiple brands of trucks, including Mitsubishi, CAT, Unicarriers, Rocla and Jungheinrich.
New products from Logisnext include Unicarriers’ MX2 and MXL Series 4-wheel electric 80-volt pneumatic forklifts, with 5,000-7,000 and 9,000-12,000-pound capacities. CAT also launched the DP60HP-DP100CP forklift series, which span 13,000 to 22,000 pounds in lift capacity and are internal combustion (IC) pneumatic tire trucks built for heavy loads.
No. 6 Hyster-Yale reported $3.54 billion in 2022 revenue, up from $3.07 billion in 2021. The company sold approximately 100,800 units in 2022, up from 94,900 units in 2021. The company believes understanding its customers’ applications is best done by segmenting the market into two categories: industrial and warehousing applications. The company’s Hyster brand has a strong position in the industrial markets and will focus on those applications, while the Yale brand has a strong position in the warehouse market category and will focus there. In this context, in March 2023, the company launched its “Yale Lift Truck Technologies” branding, which reflects Yale’s focus on solving the toughest labor, safety and productivity challenges through technology integration and a customer-success philosophy.
The Industrial Truck Association (ITA, indtrk.org) has defined seven classes of lift trucks, or forklifts, which are defined by the type of engine, work environment, operator position and equipment characteristics.
Since primarily classes one through five are used in materials handling applications inside the four walls, Modern has only specified those on our supplier table.
Holding on to seventh place, Anhui Forklift Truck Group’s revenues decreased from $2.4 billion in 2021 revenue on last year’s list, to $2.25 billion. The company, which has its North American headquarters in Atlanta, sold 260,846 units worldwide in 2022.
In eighth place is Hangcha Group, which had 2022 revenue of $2.06 billion, down from last year’s level of $2.27 billion. During 2022, the company noted that it has launched Hangcha organizations in Australia and The Netherlands, while on the product front, it introduced 11 high-voltage, lithium forklifts for heavy duty applications, aimed at cost-effective solutions that assist with carbon reduction goals.
Doosan Bobcat, which rebranded from Doosan Industrial Vehicle to bring in the Bobcat name last year, holds on to ninth on our list this year. The company’s revenue for 2022 came in at $1.68 billion, up from 2021 revenue of $1.35 billion.
Moving into the No. 10 spot this year is Clark Material Handling, which had 2022 revenue of $908 million, up from its 2021 revenue of $812 million, representing an 11.8 % gain. The company noted that in 2022, Clark Material Handling increased global production to meet demand from dealers and customers in all sectors while continuing to develop new products, specifically in ITA Class I and Class V, for release this year and next.
The second half of the Top 20 saw some changes this year, with updated revenue figures from multiple vendors and a new entrant to the 20th spot on the list, replacing a vendor who had not responded to our questionnaire for more than three years. Interestingly, the new entrant specializes in autonomous lift truck solutions. Autonomous lift trucks carry out similar functions to manual counterparts, but use AGV or autonomous mobile robot (AMR) guidance to allow for autonomous navigation and material moves.
Moving up a spot to 11th this year is EP Equipment, known in North America for the Big Joe and ePicker brands. EP’s upward trajectory continued this year, and the company came in with $720 million in 2022 revenue, up from $652 million the previous year, a 10.4% increase.
In the 12th spot this year is Komatsu, who declined to fill out a questionnaire this year, so we are listing them at the $605 million figure provided to us in 2021.
At No. 13 this year is Lonking, whose 2022 lift truck revenue of $487 million is taken from the Chinese company’s published annual report, converted to dollars. The company’s annual report also shows that their 2021 forklift revenue, converted to dollars, based on the prevailing rate at the close of 2021, was about $551 million.
Taking spot 14 is LiuGong, which responded to our questionnaire to update us that they had $465 million in lift truck related total revenue in 2022, up from $406 million, representing a 14.5% year-over-year gain. The company, which is larger due to its presence in other markets like construction equipment, has subsidiaries globally, with its U.S. operation headquartered in Katy, Texas. The company states it sold approximately 16,000 industrial trucks in 2022.
No. 15 this year is Hyundai Material Handling, which had 2022 revenue of $457 million, up from $441 million in 2021. The company states it sold 13,853 units in 2022.
Coming in 16th with another growth year is Combilift, known for its narrow aisle and long-load handing equipment. The company had 2022 revenue of $420 million, up from $388 million. The Irish supplier, which has its U.S. headquarters in Greensboro, N.C., sold 8,570 units in 2022.
At No. 17 is Noblelift, which enjoyed another strong growth year. The company’s revenue reached $308.5 million in 2022, up from $240 million in 2021, a 28.5% increase.
Manitou comes in at No. 18 this year, with lift truck related revenues, according to its completed questionnaire, of $228 million in 2022 compared with $157 million in 2021. Last year, when the company did not respond by research deadline, we listed them based on an older questionnaire that had a much higher figure for lift truck revenue.
Retaining No. 19 is Godrej & Boyce, which reported 2022 revenue of $90.89 million, up slightly from their revenue in 2021. The company stated it sold 4,690 units this past year. On the product front, the company launched its UNO series electric truck, using an 80-volt battery system for longer runtime. Godrej & Boyce also introduced a lithium-powered pallet truck, the GPPT 2000 PRO.
Rounding out the Top 20 is a new entrant, VisionNav Robotics, a startup founded in 2016 known for autonomous lift trucks. Its worldwide sales in calendar 2022 were $20.7 million, and it sold 420 autonomous trucks in 2022. In April 2022, VisionNav announced an $80 million C+ funding round.
That’s our Top 20 Lift Truck Suppliers for 2023, based on calendar and/or fiscal year 2022 revenue. Overall, it was a year of continued sales growth, though vendors had to struggle with continued supply chain disruptions, impacts from the ongoing war in Ukraine, and some higher production costs. But as you can see from our chart, many key vendors grew their revenue figures last year, though for most, not at quite as fast as in 2022.
Barring new massive disruptions, the coming year should allow the market to settle into a steadier growth pattern. Analyst firms vary in their long-term predictions for the market, with some estimating a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 4.5% over the next several years, and other forecasts, such as one from Allied Market Research, predicting a CAGR of 7.5% from 2022 to 2031. That type of steadier growth likely would be welcomed by many.
To be eligible for Modern’s annual Top 20 lift truck suppliers ranking, companies must manufacture and sell lift trucks in at least one of the Industrial Truck Association’s seven truck classes: electric motor rider; electric motor hand trucks; internal combustion engine; pneumatic tire; electric and internal combustion engine tow tractors; and rough terrain lift trucks.
Rankings are based on worldwide revenue from powered industrial trucks during each company’s most recent fiscal year. We collect information via a questionnaire, and additional research on public companies. Revenue figures submitted in foreign currency are calculated using the Dec. 31, 2022 exchange rate. Percentage changes for certain vendors may vary from figures or percentages in annual reports or other sources, due to currency conversion issues and timing.
Pallet Jack Mover While we will use a supplier’s previous year revenue figure if a new figure is not available, we seek to limit that rule to three years running. If a vendor has not responded within three years, or we cannot verify a solid public number for their lift truck business, we drop them from the list. We also focus on lift truck related revenues, asking specifically about revenue related to the sales of industrial trucks (e.g., forklifts) rather than other off-road vehicles used in industries such as construction or mining.