The survey, a key part of BITA’s biannual economic forecast for the lift-truck sector, shows that when it comes to expected sales BITA members are expecting orders to rise and the percentage of respondents expecting a ‘significant increase’ in sales has almost doubled from 10% six months ago to almost 20% for this survey.

In terms of the overall market in 2013, Oxford Economics believes that orders will amount to a total of 27,019 trucks, a 0.7% increase on 2012. However, it is predicted that by 2016 both actual shipments and new orders of trucks will have broken through the psychologically significant 30,000 barrier – back to pre-recession levels.