New statistics show that new registrations of forwarders fell by 70 per cent in Sweden during April 2009 compared with the same month last year. The cause is just as much expectations of innovative products as it is the economic situation.
“It’s normal that demand falls before Elmia Wood,” comments Rolf Andersson, CEO of the machinery manufacturer Rottne. “We usually expect to see a huge number of people at our stand.”
About 50,000 visitors come to Elmia Wood from around the world looking for the latest ways to cut costs and increase productivity.
“We have relatively new machines but we want to see what’s happened on the machinery side and get an overall picture of what’s available on the market,” says Roger Rooth, who runs a forest contracting company called Rooth Skogsvård in Åmål, Sweden together with his brother, Hans.
The time to create profitability is now
Roger is optimistic about the future and is bringing all his employees with him to Elmia Wood.
“It’s a much appreciated break in our everyday working environment, a chance to meet colleagues and find new products and methods that can make us more productive,” he explains.
Forest owners make up the largest group of visitors to the fair. Gerth Hjalmarsson operates Östankärr Egendom, which is located between the Swedish towns of Västervik and Vimmerby. He has 1,500 hectares of productive forest land.
“It’s now that we’re creating profitability in the forest,” he says. “When there’s less felling going on, there’s more time for forest management. Timber inventories are high right now but in the forest there’s still growth regardless of the economic climate.”
Gerth comes to Elmia Wood to discover new forest management techniques and to keep up to date on technological innovations so that he can become an even better purchaser of services.
Visitors from around the world
Small-scale wood processing is a forest industry sector where Elmia Wood has established itself as the world’s leading fair. Visitors come from around the world to find small-scale sawmills and other innovations. One such visitor is Marc Petitroulet, who runs a small sawmill operation in the French Alps north of Grenoble.
“I found my current sawmill at Elmia Wood in 2005,” he says. “I’m back here again because it is at Elmia that you find the innovations in small-scale wood processing.”
Elmia Wood 2009 offers a full programme in both large- and small-scale forestry. All the leading manufacturers of forest machinery are present, plus innovative newcomers. Compared with previous fairs bioenergy has a greater presence this time, with everything from machines for slash handling to wood boilers. But above all Elmia Wood is an important meeting place for the entire forest industry at a time when the economy could be turning around.