The recently concluded forklift industry exhibition not only showcased the current development achievements of the industry, but also reflected the future development trends of the forklift industry. Under the dual guidance of the “dual carbon” goal and intelligent manufacturing strategy, greening, intelligence, globalization, and standardization will become the four core themes of the industry’s future development, promoting the forklift industry to achieve comprehensive transformation and upgrading.
The green transformation will continue to deepen and become an inevitable trend in the development of the industry. Exhibition data shows that the penetration rate of electric forklifts continues to increase, with the proportion of lithium-ion forklifts expanding. Compared with traditional internal combustion forklifts, electric forklifts have significant advantages in operating costs and environmental performance. In addition, the full implementation of the “National IV” emission standards for non road mobile machinery will further accelerate the elimination process of internal combustion forklifts. In the future, greening will no longer be limited to upgrading power sources, but will also achieve deep integration with intelligence. Through data collection and algorithm optimization, energy consumption control will be achieved in all scenarios of forklift operations, shifting from “passive energy conservation” to “active optimization”.
Intelligence will advance to a deeper level, moving from single machine intelligence to system collaboration. In the future, the cost of unmanned forklifts, intelligent AGVs and other products will continue to decline, and market penetration is expected to rapidly increase. It is expected that the market size of intelligent forklifts will maintain double-digit growth in the coming years. At the same time, embodied intelligent technology will gradually be implemented, promoting forklift products to achieve more flexible operating modes, which can complete various complex scenarios such as transportation, palletizing, and unpacking, becoming a core component of intelligent logistics systems. In addition, the industry will accelerate its transformation from a single equipment supplier to an intelligent logistics system integrator, providing a one-stop solution of “hardware+software+services”.
The globalization layout and industry standardization development will also be promoted synchronously. Currently, the global forklift market demand is showing a recovery trend, with sustained growth in demand in regions such as Asia Pacific, North America, and Europe, providing vast space for the global development of the industry. At the same time, issues such as talent shortage in the industry, incomplete recycling network for old forklifts, and outdated battery technology standards will also drive the industry to accelerate standardization construction. By improving the talent training system, jointly building recycling networks, and formulating unified technical standards, development bottlenecks can be overcome.
Overall, the forklift industry is in a critical period of transformation and development. In the future, driven by green intelligent technology, it will achieve dual improvement in industry quality and scale, continuously empower the intelligent logistics ecosystem, and provide strong support for the high-quality development of thousands of industries.