Forklift truck orders for 2013 are expected to be confirmed at 0.7% up on the previous year in the UK, according to a survey by Oxford Economics for the British Industrial Truck Association (BITA).

The survey found that 40% of BITA members are more optimistic about general economic prospects than they were six months ago, with the remainder feeling the same as then – but none feeling less optimistic. BITA expects orders for the whole of 2013 to come to 27,019 units, with new orders for trucks to have broken through the psychologically significant 30,000 barrier by 2016 – back to pre-recession levels.