Forklift Market Trends 2025 | What Jungheinrich’s Russia Exit Tells Us

Forklifts, Russia, and the Future of Warehouse Machines

Jungheinrich just became the latest Western industrial giant to cut its final ties with Russia—an event that speaks volumes about forklift market trends in 2025 and beyond. The German forklift maker signed a deal to sell Jungheinrich Lift Truck OOO—its Russian subsidiary—to a local financial investor. The sale price? Capped at 40% of market value under Moscow’s rules, meaning Jungheinrich is walking away at a steep discount, well below book value.

On paper, the fallout looks grim. Jungheinrich slashed its 2025 EBIT guidance from €280–350 million down to €160–230 million. Earnings before tax also halved, from €250–320 million to €130–200 million. And ROCE, a key profitability metric, drops from the earlier 10–14% range to just 5–9%.

But here’s the thing: revenue and orders are unchanged at €5.3–5.9 billion. In other words, demand hasn’t collapsed—optics have. And that’s where the real story begins: the forklift market trends in 2025 are being shaped less by one-off divestitures, and more by structural shifts in automation, pricing, and global geopolitics.

Why this matters beyond Jungheinrich

This is not just a German forklift market story. It’s a case study of where the entire material handling industry is heading.

Profit optics vs. real demand: Investors hate guidance cuts, but the driver here is regulatory—Russia’s forced discount, not collapsing order books. For the global forklift market, which is forecast to reach USD 120.1 billion by the period 2035, this shows how geopolitics can distort P&Ls without denting underlying demand. For anyone watching forklift market trends 2025, this signals that demand fundamentals remain intact.

The mix is changing: Peers tell the story. KION just reported record automation orders in its Supply Chain Solutions division, even as truck deliveries slowed. Hyster-Yale, by contrast, is flagging soft bookings in its bread-and-butter forklifts. The lesson? Growth isn’t in selling more forklifts—it’s in automation, services, and connected tech.

Russia is no longer a growth market for Western OEMs: The sale underscores what’s already clear: Russia is structurally closed off. Share will inevitably shift to local and Chinese players. Western firms will redeploy capital into safer, higher-margin regions. That means Europe, North America, and logistics-heavy Asia remain the battlegrounds.

Pricing pressure is real: After the 2021–23 boom, where supply chain bottlenecks let OEMs push through price hikes, the tide is turning. Toyota Material Handling saw forklift unit declines in North America and Europe this year. HY’s commentary echoes the same. Unless you’re in specialized electrics, cold chain, or telematics-heavy fleets, expect pricing to soften. And when we talk about forklift market trends 2025, pricing dynamics will be just as critical as unit volumes.

The deeper issue | Are forklifts becoming a commodity?

This is the uncomfortable question. Much like retail energy in the UK, forklifts in their basic form are treated as interchangeable. That drives a race to the bottom on price.

Yet, the market is evolving. Safety pressures (7,500 injuries and ~100 deaths a year in the U.S. from forklift accidents) are forcing companies like Tesla and Whirlpool to look at alternatives—AGVs, tuggers, cranes, automation systems. In that world, the forklift risks becoming the “dumb commodity,” while the value pools shift to software, integration, and service contracts.

If you’re tracking forklift market trends in 2025, this is the pivot point: the winners will be those who transform forklifts into intelligent, connected assets—not those who flood the market with generic machines.

The reality check

Jungheinrich’s sale tells us capital is mobile. Companies will cut loose unproductive assets and reinvest in markets where margins are defensible.

The winners in this industry won’t be the ones selling the most forklifts. They’ll be the ones turning forklift industry into connected, intelligent assets, bundling them with warehouse automation, and locking in service revenues.

For investors, the next few quarters will look messy—lower EBIT, scary guidance cuts—but the structural growth story is intact. Warehousing demand, e-commerce, and electrification aren’t slowing.

What’s Next in Forklift Market Trends 2025

We should expect:

More divestitures of non-core or geopolitically risky assets.

Faster automation adoption—AGVs and robotics becoming mainstream in logistics.

Services and telematics becoming the real margin drivers.

China’s rise in emerging markets, as Western OEMs redeploy elsewhere.

The headline says Jungheinrich’s profits are down. The real story? Forklifts are no longer just forklifts. They’re becoming nodes in an automated, data-driven warehouse system. And in the context of forklift market trends 2025, the companies still playing the volume game are already behind.

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