GERMAN multinational company KION Group, a global leader in industrial trucks, aims to unlock the growth potential of the Chinese market and will invest further in the country, KION CEO Gordon Riske said Tuesday.

The Frankfurt-headquartered company is active in two business segments: industrial trucks and services, and supply chain solutions. Its order intake hit record high in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the company’s annual report revealed Tuesday.

Commenting on the Chinese market’s contribution to KION’s growth, Riske said that China was a high-growth market for KION in 2020, which was mirrored not only in new orders but also in the expansion of businesses and investment.

New orders for industrial trucks increased by 8.6 percent to around 1.6 million units worldwide in 2020, which was mainly driven by the exceptionally strong growth in China, where the year-on-year growth rate was 37 percent, KION’s annual report showed.

Global orders for new electric forklift trucks decreased by 0.9 percent in 2020, while orders for trucks fitted with an internal combustion engine saw a 9.6 percent increase owing to the sharp rise in unit sales in China. Order intake for warehouse trucks was also boosted by China’s strong growth, rising by 11.2 percent year on year.

“We have an important production site in Xiamen, which we’ve expanded with a second production unit there,” Riske said, noting that the second plant in that southeastern coastal city has been manufacturing warehouse trucks since last year.

Aware that China is one of the world’s biggest markets for material handling, the KION Group has decided to invest 100 million euros (US$120.8 million) in a new plant for counterbalance trucks in Jinan, Shandong Province.

Riske said that KION is on schedule hiring people for the new plant, which intends to create more than 800 new jobs by 2025.(Xinhua)