Material Handling Equipment Manufacturers

Industry Profile Report

Dive Deep into the industry with a 25+ page industry report (pdf format) including the following chapters

Industry Overview Current Conditions, Industry Structure, How Firms Operate, Industry Trends, Credit Underwriting & Risks, and Industry Forecast.

Call Preparation Call Prep Questions, Industry Terms, and Weblinks.

Financial Insights Working Capital, Capital Financing, Business Valuation, and Financial Benchmarks.

Industry Profile Excerpts

Industry Overview

The 1,425 material handling equipment manufacturers in the US produce a wide range of custom products including elevators, escalators and moving walkways; conveyors and industrial and commercial carousels; grain and mine elevators and conveyors; pneumatic tube conveyors; and overhead cranes, hoists, winches and monorail systems. They also produce standard products, including dollies and hand trucks; forklifts and pallet movers; industrial cradles, cherry-pickers, and bomb lifts; wheelbarrows, shopping carts and cart corrals, valet carts and dumbwaiters. As a result, the industry’s customer base is very broad.

Foreign Competition

US manufacturers compete in the domestic market with imports, which represent about 29% of the US market for material handling equipment.

System Automation and Flow Analysis

As technology advances, so too are the capabilities incorporated into material handling equipment.

Industry size & Structure

A typical material handling equipment manufacturer operates out of a single location, employs 69 workers, and generates over $30 million annually.

    • The material handling equipment manufacturing industry consists of about 1,425 companies, which employ about 92,600 workers and generate about $43.7 billion annually.
    • The elevator and escalator segment accounts for 11% of firms and 12% of industry revenue. The conveyor and conveying equipment segment accounts for 49% of firms and 32% of revenue. The overhead crane, hoist and monorail system segment represents 18% of firms and 23% of revenue. The segment that produces carts, stackers, lifts and cradles accounts for 22% of firms and 33% of industry revenue.
    • The conveyor and conveying equipment segment is the least concentrated with half of its revenue attributed to its top 50 firms. The other three segments are highly concentrated with half of revenue attributed to the top 4 firms.
    • Large companies include Material Handling Systems, Dematic, Bastian Solutions, DMW&H, Crown, Yale Materials Handling, Hyster, Americana, and divisions of Honeywell, Caterpillar, and Komatsu.
                                    Industry Forecast
                                    Material Handling Equipment Manufacturers Industry Growth
                                    Source: Vertical IQ and Inforum

                                    Recent Developments

                                    Jan 30, 2024 - Producer Prices Up in 2023
                                    • Producer prices for material handling equipment manufacturers rose 2.6% in 2023 after climbing 8.8% and 13.3% in 2022 and 2021, respectively. Pricing power for makers of material handling equipment weakened last year amid contraction in the US manufacturing sector. Still, employment by the industry increased 3.8% through November to a new high. Sales for the US material handling equipment manufacturers industry are forecast to grow at a 2.5% compounded annual rate from 2023 to 2027, slower than the growth of the overall economy, according to the Interindustry Economic Research Fund.
                                    • A study from distribution center technology company Lucas Systems finds that game mechanics can drive employee engagement and keep warehouse workers on the job, Modern Materials Handling (MMH) reported in January. The study, which surveyed 750 on-floor warehouse workers in the US and UK, found nearly 84% of workers said they were more likely to stay with a company that developed workplace competitions around their day-to-day tasks. Workers enjoy gamifying their work, embrace the benefits gamified teamwork could bring, and are eager to participate if it means earning company recognition or prizes such as company merchandise, Lucas Systems concluded. “The results point to new and innovative ways for managers to attract and keep warehouse workers,” says Lucas Systems Chief People Officer Bud Leeper. Gamification can be a differentiator for employers looking to fill the more than 250,000 warehouse worker job openings in the US right now, according to MMH.
                                    • Amazon has surpassed UPS and FedEx as the largest shipper of parcels in the US, The Wall Street Journal reported in November. The e-commerce giant delivered more packages to US homes in 2022 than UPS, after eclipsing FedEx in 2020, and is on track to widen the gap this year, according to internal data from Amazon and people familiar with the matter, according to WSJ. Before Thanksgiving, Amazon had already delivered more than 4.8 billion packages in the US, and its internal projections predict that it will deliver around 5.9 billion by the end of 2023, according to documents viewed by WSJ. In 2022, Amazon shipped 5.2 billion packages. To stay ahead of its rivals, Amazon is overhauling its massive distribution network as part of its fast-shipping strategy creating opportunities for providers of materials handling equipment such as conveyors, racks, and other warehouse equipment.
                                    • Amazon and Walmart are transitioning to paper-based shipping bags as autobagger suppliers bring on new machines, Modern Materials Handling (MMH) reports. According to Amazon’s 2022 Sustainability Report, the company is “phasing out padded bags containing plastics in favor of recyclable materials.” While Amazon didn’t announce a deadline for the transition, it’s already underway in Europe where last year the e-commerce giant eliminated single-use delivery plastic delivery bags for orders shipped from European fulfillment centers and replaced them with curbside-recyclable alternatives. Walmart also recently announced it is replacing plastic with paper with plans to eliminate 65 million plastic bag mailers annually. The transition is expected to be completed in Walmart’s current fiscal year. Suppliers of paper-based autobagging machines include Accutech Packaging, PAC Machinery, and SEE (formerly Sealed Air), according to MMH.
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