Martin Placek
Research expert covering transportation and electronics
Material handling industry in the UK - statistics & facts
The material handling industry is strongly represented in Europe, with the European market accounting for 28 percent of the global material handling equipment sales in 2020, making it the second biggest market after Asia. In the same year, the forecasted revenue of lifting and handling equipment manufacturing in the United Kingdom (UK) amounted to over 5.5 billion U.S. dollars. After a 4.3 percent loss in 2020, the UK material handling market is expected to experience further decline this year, reflecting the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
UK's trade of material handling equipment
When comparing trading with material handling equipment, the exports of lifting and handling machinery from the United Kingdom has been steadily increasing since 2014, reaching a peak in 2019 at 653.7 million British pounds. Whereas imports of these items decreased, amounting to 704.5 million British pounds but still worth more than exports. The UK had also imported more than 14.8 million British pounds worth of rubber conveyor belts from non-EU countries in 2019, while EU imports were valued at 9.5 million British pounds that year. In the same year, the UK exported rubber conveyor belts worth 19.5 million British pounds to non-EU countries and a further 7.2 million British pounds worth to EU countries.Material handling equipment sales decreased because of the coronavirus pandemic
Sales figures for lifting and handling equipment were steadily increasing until the coronavirus pandemic began. The number of self-propelled work trucks fitted with lifting or handling equipment sold in the United Kingdom have been continuously decreasing since 2017 and reached under 16,000 units in 2020, while the sales value of these items decreased by 24 percent, reaching just under 280 million British pounds.Firms in material handling equipment
Toyota is one of the leading truck supplier in the world. With its subsidiary, Toyota Material Handling UK, the Japanese group offers a range of trucks and warehouse equipment like hand pallet trucks, powered pallet truck, order pickers among others. As for UK manufacturers of material handling equipment, the annual turnover of Leidos Automation (previously ExMac Automation) amounted to 12.64 million British pounds in 2019.
