The corona virus may have affected a lot in the World during 2020 but the Swedish market** for forwarders stood strong. As a matter of fact, there has never been so many forwarders registered in Sweden in one year during the 21st century, if ever.
Record sales of forwarders in Sweden 2020
In total, 451 forwarders were registered in Sweden during 2020. This is an increase compared to 2019 of 23 %, which also was a strong year for forwarder sales. The changes in market shares are big and there is one clear winner.
The last 10 years there has been an average of 320 registered forwarders per year, meaning that 2020 got a fairly good push upward to 451 machines. Previous peaks during present century were 2011 (398 forwarders), 2007 (382) and 2019 (366). One can only speculate around the reasons for this huge increase of the market in 2020. One reason could be that the Swedish market alone was booming this particular year. Another reason is probably the good years 2018 and 2019 that in some cases gave very long delivery times. This meant that many machines that were sold in 2019 were delivered in 2020.
John Deere increases sharply
The largest increase of all in 2020, is accomplished by John Deere Forestry. They registered 191 forwarders in Sweden which is 75 % more than in 2019. It´s also an all-time high for John Deere in Sweden. In 2019 Komatsu Forest passed John Deere in Sweden but in 2020 John Deere have regained the throne and now have 42,4 % of the forwarder market.
Photo: Deere.se
Komatsu had 98 registered forwarders which is a little less than a normal year during the 21st century. Since the total market for forwarders in Sweden have increased, and Komatsu have not, their market share has decreased from 31,4 % in 2019 to 21,7 % in 2020.
Ponsse grows and catches up
One manufacturer that actually has gained market shares in 2020 is the Finnish brand Ponsse who also breaks their record in Sweden with 86 registered forwarders. This means that they continue their strong growth during the last years. At the beginning of the 2000’s, Ponsse sold some dozen forwarders in Sweden every year. Now they are some few presents from being the second largest supplier on this market. Their market share in Sweden 2020 was 19,1 %.
EcoLog grows and Gremo disappears
Eco Log has been offensive during 2020. They purchased both the machine manufacturer Gremo and the harvester head manufacturer SP Maskiner this year. The Gremo brand disappears but the forwarders live on in Eco Log colors and under the Eco Log brand. During 2021 all Gremo forwarder models will be replaced by similar Eco Log models.
Eco Log also launched the F-version of the forwarders 574 and 594. Also, a new model, the 16-tonner 584F, was presented during 2020. The forwarder sales for Eco Log seems to take off, and it´s the 574F that carries the increase. This model climbs several steps on the list of most popular forwarders. The number of registered Eco Log forwarders increased by 40 % in Sweden last year.
For obvious reasons, the registration of Gremo forwarders decreased during 2020, but if you add up EcoLog and Gremo the upgoing trend is clear. By doing that Eco Log are just some tenths away from the fourth position on the Swedish forwarder market. A position that Rottne still holds. It seems that the fight over market shares on the Swedish market will be tough for a while.
Photo: Ecolognordicwoodjournal.com
Rottne misses out on the increase
Rottne has a steady number of machines rolling out from the factory, but they haven´t been able to take part of the increase of the total Swedish market in 2020. With 34 registered forwarders, Rottne ends up on fourth place on the list with a market share of 7,5 %.
Among other manufacturers it´s worth mentioning that Sampo Rosenlew increased their registration of forwarders in Sweden by 100 % in 2020. From three to six forwarders, thanks to the larger model FR48. Tigercat loses some machines, from 10 to 6, but introduced a new model on the Swedish market in 2020, the 14-tonner 1055C. For Logset, the Swedish Transport Agency haven´t noted any registration of forwarders in 2020 at all.
A lot of green on the top list
On the list of the most popular forwarders in Sweden, two John Deere models are at the top: 1510G and 1910G. Those two models represent 25 % of the Swedish forwarder market. John Deere have all models, except the smallest one (910G), on the top-ten list. The others on that list are Komatsu Forest 855 and 895, Ponsse Elephant King and Buffalo, and Eco Log 574F.
John Deere have the largest increases with their models 1010G (from 8 to 32) and 1910G (from 23 to 48). Other climbers on the list are Eco Log 574F, Ponsse Wisent, Rottne F13D and John Deere 910G.
Machines for schools
Everybody has to learn somewhere. In Sweden there are schools where young people learn how to handle forest machines. That means that the schools need machines, and machines are expensive. Because of that, a system is used where machine suppliers rent out machines to schools for a year. After a year the machines are sold to customers in the forest and the schools get new machines again. Everybody wins: The schools and the students get the latest technology, the manufacturers get marketing for their machines and contractors get the opportunity to buy “as-good-as-new” machines at a fair price.
Of the 451 registered forwarders in Sweden 2020, approx. 50 were registered at schools.
* This is a summary of an article signed Torbjörn Johnsen at the Swedish sister-site Skogsforum.se.
** In Sweden, all forwarders are registered by the authority Swedish Transport Agency (Transportstyrelsen). As the Swedish market for CTL-machines is the largest market in the World (2020), those figures give a fairly good picture of the total market for CTL-machines. The harvesters are, however, not registered by the Transport Agency, but the number of manufactured harvesters follows the number of forwarders in most cases.
