This report analyses the market for rough terrain lift trucks (RTLTs) in Italy, which was last covered in the European Service in October 2018. It assesses the current trends in the market, reviews the operations of domestic manufacturers and main suppliers, and forecasts likely trends over the next five years.

The RTLT is a purpose-built machine with either a vertical rigid mast or a telescopic boom, mounted on a rough terrain chassis designed to lift, carry and place loads over rough ground in all weather conditions. It is matched to the material handling needs and conditions of civil engineering and building sites, farms and industrial yards.

The first rigid masted machines were launched in Italy in the 1960s, and all of them were front wheel drive, rear wheel steer, tractor-based machines with a vertical mast attached to the front and a counterweight at the back. In the late 1970s and the 1980s the development of rough terrain lift trucks moved from vertical, rigid mast machines to ones with telescopic booms. These machines – commonly known as telescopic handlers, or telehandlers for short – offer superior reach and have successfully competed with other material handling equipment such as small mobile cranes and self-erecting tower cranes to establish themselves as the equipment of choice in many sectors.

This situation has been reinforced by the more recent development of rotating telescopic handlers – known colloquially as ‘rotos’ – which not only have telescopic booms but also rotating superstructures. These have increased the versatility of the machines on sites as well as having extended their lifting range up to and beyond 30 metres.

RTLTs in this report are rated according to their maximum lift capacity and/or the maximum height to which they can lift a load. The maximum lift capacity and the height are not linked.

The findings presented in this report are based on Off-Highway Research’s International Database, and on information collected through interviews conducted with the leading suppliers in Italy in March 2022.