ProMat 2023 – Automation at a crossroad

I had a fascinating conversation with Brett Wood, the president and CEO of Toyota Material Handling North America (TMHNA). Wood noted that if you based your view of the economy on television news, you’d think we’re in the doldrums. Now, the long-predicted recession may be coming – we’ve never had this many consecutive years of growth without a downturn in the past – but the numbers that relate to industry are pretty darn good.

In Wood’s own corner of the industrial and material handling community, these are the best of times. He noted that the industry sold a combined total of 663,000 units in 2021 and 2022 in the U.S. and Canada. “A normal year is in the 200,000’s,” Wood told me, adding that “we’ve never sold over 300,000 units in a year.” 2023 is on track to be down 25% from 2022, which Wood characterized as a positive. After operating at a breakneck pace for the last few years “our factories need to take a breath,” he said, adding that the industry is still on track to post its 4th or 5th highest sales of all time despite the correction. Think about that: A year in which sales may drop by 25% will still be one of the best years on record.

Wood’s take away, both from his role in the lift truck industry and as one of the Board of Governors at MHI, the organization that produces ProMat, was this: “I’ve never seen a time when customers are so future thinking and not just putting out fires. Thank goodness our customers don’t read the news.”

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