With world economies experiencing a staggered slowdown, it will be a mixed year for lift truck demand.

In North America and Mexico, factory orders will be up 10% in 2002. Yet units are expected to be off 15% in Germany and France, Europe's two largest markets for lift trucks. Meanwhile, growth of 1 to 4% is expected in the U.K., Italy, and Spain. In middle and eastern Europe, growth of almost 17% is anticipated. And Japanese demand will be down by 8%.

That's the report from the three presidents of the world's leading lift truck associations—Jim Moran (Crown) of the Industrial Truck Association  in the U.S., Peter Schmohl (Linde) of FEM in Europe, and Akira Yokoi (Toyota) of the Japan Industrial Vehicles Association (JIVA). The reports were given at last month's Industrial Truck Association meeting.

Moran was the only one to offer a look into lift truck demand for 2003. "I am choosing to be optimistic with this projection," he said, calling for a 5% increase next year in the Americas. That would bring total lift truck sales just over the 164,000 unit level, still a long way from the peak in 2000 of nearly 224,000 lift trucks, but up from the bottom of last year's 142,000 units.