The professional federations Sigma (for importers and representatives of equipment for civil engineering, construction and material handling), Fedagrim (for agricultural and garden mechanization) and BERA (the Belgian Equipment Rental Association) held a New Year’s event together for the first time yesterday at the Antwerp Trade Fair. We spoke with Sigma chairman Dries Van Haut about the sales figures of material handling machines during the past year, and about what we can expect from 2026.
“If we look at the figures for the Lift Trucks section, i.e. machines for logistics, we see that there will be an increase of approximately 6% in 2025 compared to 2024. This seems good, but you have to count that we will have had a very serious setback in 2024. So, despite that increase, we are still at relatively low figures. There is of course a certain recovery.”
“If we look at the various subsections, the electric forklift trucks surprisingly performed a little less well, while the combustion engine forklift trucks did better. That is a much smaller number. So that absolute number is also a percentage increase, but in absolute numbers it is not too bad.”
“The warehouse trucks, electric stackers and the like do follow the general trend and are even showing an increase of approximately 9% compared to 2024.”
What are the major challenges for this sector today?
“It remains a problem to find the right people for all technical profiles. This has been the case for years and has not been resolved. We also see that industrial activity has decreased somewhat and that the number of operating hours of the machines has decreased. So that counteracts that problem a little bit. But the fact that the machines are also becoming increasingly complex does not make it any easier.”
What do you expect from 2026?
“That is actually very difficult. Due to the uncertain geopolitical climate, we notice that many customers are very cautious about making investments. This makes it very difficult to make predictions. Everyone expects a year that will be okay, but still remains very cautious. Because if tomorrow Trump or Putin makes some crazy leap, everything can suddenly change.”
