Joakim Eckerström – Plantma Forestry

Newsletter July 2024

Joakim Eckerström — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 09:31:05 +0000

The new standard in mechanized planting

Just a quick recap of some of the things we’ve been up to so far in 2024.

Make sure to follow @plantmaforestry on social media to get the latest updates and read more on what we are doing.

Right now we are taking turns to get some well deserved vacation and renewed energy to continue our work to provide you with the best planting equipment on the planet!

During late July and beginning of August we are working at half speed but there is always someone there to support your needs, so don’t hesitate to reach out if you need us.

We wish you all a good summer (or winter if your in the southern hemisphere)!

Brazil

Machines are continuously shipping out to customers, and our South American dealer Timber has just brought their first machine to Chile for demos.

The future is looking really bright and as a first step we are planning to double our production capacity for next year to meet the increasing demand.

Australia

The first machine in Australia is in full production at Form Forest in Albany, Western Australia.
After a million Euca-seedlings planted it is now planting Pine a little further up north.

Canada

After planting for JDI for the last two planting seasons our prototype, the Plantma X, has just made a very successful demo in Amos, Quebec.

Next season there will be more PlantMax planters at work in Canada and we are really excited about the future together with our good friends at Log Max Forestry in Moncton, NB.

Latvia

In May we did a successful trial in Latvia for the State forests LVM. As always, everyone is happy with the planting results that are on par with, if not exceeding, manual planting. And the production capacity is certainly there so the conclusion was “there will be PlantMax machines planting in Latvia, it’s only a matter of time”. It was also stated that “this is the greatest step taken in forestry mechanization in 30 years”

Sweden

In June we attended the IUFRO World Congress in Stockholm, Sweden, where forest scientists from all over the world gathered to share insights and discuss the future of forestry worldwide.

It is obvious to everyone that forests are a key factor in battling climate change with sustainable forest management as well as large scale planting programs, and we are proud to be able to supply technology that can really make a difference in these operations.

More information

To stay updated on what we’re doing – Sign up for the newsletter on the website www.plantmaforestry.com

And follow us on social media:
Facebook/Instagram/LinkedIn @plantmaforestry
www.youtube.com/c/plantmaforestry

Newsletter 2023 wrap up

Joakim Eckerström — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 07:30:53 +0000

Planting the forests of tomorrow

2023

This last year has been a real journey for us at Plantma Forestry. We’ve grown in numbers and moved to new facilities at home while our machines have been planting seedlings in all corners of the world. In summary, this is what happened:

Generation X3

We have started shipping out the first units of the X3 generation of planters and just as we send this newsletter, the first X3, sold to Aperam Bioenergia in Brazil, is starting up its work.
Besides general updates and improvements, the main thing has been to adapt to a wider range of spacing requirements in different applications. We can now handle widths up to 3,85 meters.

Brazilian sales have taken off

Following a very professional exhibition at Expoforest and an ambitious demo tour for all the big forestry companies in Brazil performed by our partner Timber, with evaluations made by IPEF, the product is now technically approved by the companies and orders are continuously coming in.
Units began shipping out from Sweden during the fall and we will increase the production pace over the next couple of years to meet the demand of the market.
Timber is asking for more machines and even with increased production we will soon be fully booked all the way through 2025.

Canada

The summer of 2023, Plantma X, our demo machine, worked for JDIrving for 2 months. After two weeks of training by our trainer, Christer, the crew of 3 “rookies” did a wonderful job, over 500.000 seedlings planted in less than 2 months. Two demos with the Plantma X are scheduled for Canada for 2024 and the first delivery of a PlantMax to an end-user is planned to take place late 2024.

Australia

The first machine sold to Australia is getting ready to hit the water and will be delivered to the customer, Form Forest in Albany WA, during April with our Markus assisting with the startup.

Sweden

Holmen has another successful planting season in the books with their machine and are currently looking at potentially acquiring more machines.

More of us

To keep up with the growing population of machines we have grown our own organization during 2023 and will continue to do so in the coming years.
If you feel like joining the team, feel free to introduce yourself and let us know how you would like to contribute to this journey. We are constantly looking for future hires in technical development, manufacturing and support of these wonderful machines.

New HQ

Our new headquarters are located in Ludvika, just south of the previous location in Borlänge. The new facilities will allow us to grow and also have our own dedicated spare parts depot. Final assembly and shipping out of machines will still be in Alfta at our partners Alftaprodukter, which is now part of the same group since January 2023. The address for the new headquarters is Storgatan 31, 77130 Ludvika.
Welcome to stop by anytime. This is Sweden, there is always a cup of coffee waiting for you.

More information

To stay updated on what we’re doing – Sign up for the newsletter on the website www.plantmaforestry.com
And follow us on social media:
Facebook/Instagram/LinkedIn @plantmaforestry
www.youtube.com/c/plantmaforestry

Newsletter September 2023

Joakim Eckerström — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 12:28:50 +0000

Planting the forests of tomorrow

The Plantma Team is growing

We welcome Simon Eurenius as a product specialist with us.
Simon most recently came from a role as a salesman for soil preparation machinery.
Previous jobs have been forest machine technician, instructor and machine operator.
A common thread throughout Simon’s professional life has been silviculture and an interest in developing machines in this area.

New order for Brazil

Following the successful demo tour in Brazil and the outstanding performance at Expoforest, our dealer Timber has placed an order for more machines to be delivered during 2024.

The first ones from the last order were sold to Aperam Bioenergia prior to Expoforest and are currently being shipped from Sweden to be mounted on the carrier in Brazil.
Timber has also received an order from Arauco and are currently in discussions with several other companies.

Muito obrigado a todos!

Australia

We are happy to announce that we’ll be starting up a machine in Western Australia next year!

Form Forest, based in Albany, has purchased a machine that will be planting seedlings from their own nursery, and we are grateful for the confidence in our machine.

We look forward to being a part of an award-winning operation in Western Australia for many years to come. https://www.formforests.com.au/

New Zealand

Our Markus and the team at Pan Pac Forest Products did a good job getting the PlantMax up and running during the last couple of months.

Trials were made in different conditions and the overall impression is that everyone is very impressed by the planting quality and the production capacity of the machine. The PlantMax plants seedling just as you want them, and the same every single time.

During the initial trials they also did tests of the slope capacity in different conditions and are currently evaluating the results to see how much of the planting area that can be planted by the PlantMax.

Full order book for deliveries in 2024

Considering the new orders from Brazil, we are now basically sold out for 2024. We are working to increase our production capacity but it will take a little time to match the need of efficient planting machines all over the world.

So if you want to secure a unit, don’t hesitate! We are in talks with multiple companies from several continents and we work on a first come, first served basis.

Newsletter June 2023

Joakim Eckerström — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 11:15:34 +0000

2023 half year summary

2023 has been a very interesting and good year for Plantma Forestry!

Our machine is being recognized as the most effective reforestation machine available and we have now performed successful trials in many countries and reached a status of technically approved product in several different applications!

This spring has been a challenge in many parts of the forestry industry and the markets where we are present with cyclones, wildfires and drought combined with heavy rains and flooding and we hope that you are all OK.

For our machines it has meant that some projects, like in New Zealand, has been postponed until just recently when Markus arrived to help start things up. Other machines have had to stop during day time and run at night to mitigate risk of fires. Thanks to the flexibility of the machine, gps navigation support and strong worklights, production has still been going on even during these limitations, in both Sweden and Canada.

We wish you all a good summer and if you’re going to Expoforest in Brazil Aug 9-11^th, we will be there together with our partners Timber, stop by and check out their PlantMax X2 operating every day of the show.
More information on this available from Timber
https://www.grupotimber.com.br/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/timber-forest-equipamentos/

Here are some information from the markets, more exciting news will follow later in the year!

Brazil

All of 2023, Timber has been on tour with their first PlantMax X2 doing demos with many of the major companies and in collaboration with IPEF.

We have been covering vast geogrophical distances and made adjustments to meet the requirements of different companies with different species and conditions.

As of today we have succesfully planted seedlings of both pine and eucalyptus according to the requirements as well as with documented high efficiency and quality. Our own MidiFlex scarifier has been used in new ways and both hardware and software has had updates to adapt to the needs of the market.

We are currently working on adding more (retrofittable) features to the machine to be able to do even more tasks in the same run, like subsoiling and fertilizing.

A full report on the demo tour and our progress will follow later in the year, but we can already tell you that the PlantMax has the potential of becoming a real game changer for Brazilian forestry!

Holmen, Sweden

For a while now, it has been obvious to Holmen that for many reasons they need and want to mechanize a big portion of the reforestation they are due to perform in the future.

PlantMax can deliver everything that is needed for this, and it already provides additional values that adds to the business case to make it on par with conventional methods.

According to Holmens own evaluation of planting quality, where they look at planting spot, depth and straightness immediately after planting, PlantMax has the same level of quality as manual planters: 96%

The machine also shows a good stability in terms of coverage, reaching 97% of the planned seedlings per hectar.

For these reasons, Holmen has formed a dedicated project group to work on the different aspects of mechanization, from logistics to site planning and criterias for choosing the most suitable sites etc. They expect to get good production from the machine this year and lay the ground for putting more machines to work in the coming years.

Canada

During the fall of 2022 we did a highly appreciated second run with JD Irving, planting 345,997 seedlings in just 3 weeks.

As a next step they have now rented the Plantma X, our firstborn – owned by our US dealer Scandinavian Forestry Equipment (SFE), for a production run with their own operators.

After a bit of startup assisted by our Product Manager Christer Larsson where the group made some changes to the MidiFlex scarifier to be able to handle more of the sometimes very heavy slash load, and moved the machine around to find out where the limit is.

Plantma X can handle very heavy loads of slash, but there is a limit where the quality of planting is affected. This means that there are areas that are more suitable for the machine but at the same time you can always do areas within sites that may not be the perfect fit for the machine where it still makes sense to cover the whole site and accept potentially lower quality planting in certain parts of the site based on a cost/benefit analysis for the planting program in total.

Following the startup session with Christer, the machine has been run by JD Irving and supported by our friends at Log Max Forestry in Moncton.
As of now they have planted more than the 500,000 seedlings they had planned for, and we are currently in discussions about prolonging the rental period for the remainder of the planting season.

More information
To stay updated on what we’re doing – Sign up for the newsletter on the website www.plantmaforestry.com
And follow us on social media:
Facebook/Instagram/LinkedIn @plantmaforestry
www.youtube.com/c/plantmaforestry

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Newsletter January 2023

Joakim Eckerström — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 09:11:05 +0000

Brazil
Finally, after a long time of preparation and transportation, a PlantMax X2 Planting unit is operating in Brazil!
In collaboration with our partners at Timber in Curitiba we have done a successful trial/demo in Pine plantations in Paraná as well as Eucalyptus in Minas Gerais and we are now in Três Lagoas.

The conditions are different from anything we’ve done in the past, but thanks to the versatility and adaptability of the PlantMax concept and the great work of our Product Manager Christer Larsson and the Timber team we have shown that our machine has the potential to be a true game changer in mechanical planting in Brazil. As of now we have already signed a deal with Timber for 3 more units to be delivered during 2023 and we are planning for a lot more for the future. If you want to secure your planting needs in the next couple of years, don’t wait too long.. Give Timber a call today! Jober C. Fonseca (41)99961-0716 Follow Plantma Forestry and Timber on LinkedIn and other social media to get updates on the progress, both from us but also from forestry professionals posting their opinions on our machine after having seen it firsthand.
www.grupotimber.com.br
LinkedIn – Setting a new standard video

Holmen, Sweden
Meanwhile in Sweden, the PlantMax at Holmen Skog has finished its first planting season.
The machine has been operating around Örnsköldsvik in the north of Sweden most of the time but once the snow fell and ground started freezing it has been moved south, just north of Stockholm, where it was operating single shift to evaluate the results of late fall planting and see how much the planting season can be extended. The experience so far has been really good and the one million seedlings they were aiming for this first year have been put in the ground! The first year has been a year of trying the machine in different conditions, finding good logistics solutions and developing procedures for seedling handling and quality control as well as machine maintenance and site planning.
We at Plantma Forestry have of course been following the machine closely, in field as well as with the live data online, and seen great progress over the course of the season. Next year will be a full season and with all the lessons learned from this year they will know more from the start about how to take advantage of the full potential of the machine. Or in the words of one of the operators, Rickard: “I’ve become more and more convinced that this is the future” Read more about Holmen’s experience in their magazine Skogsliv on the link below (In Swedish) Skogsliv Nr 2 2022 Thanks again Holmen for believing in us and for taking this step to become the first company in the world to own a PlantMax. You are now one step ahead of everyone else! If you want to see the machine in action in the Swedish forest conditions, here’s a video from our YouTube channel PlantMax X2 Holmen drone footage

New Zealand
At the end of January, the machine to Pan Pac Forest Products in New Zealand was literally wrapped up and ready to go. It will be starting up in April and we look very much forward to unwrapping it on the opposite side of the planet!

More information
To stay updated on what we’re doing – Sign up for the newsletter on the website www.plantmaforestry.com And follow us on social media:
Facebook/Instagram/LinkedIn @plantmaforestry www.youtube.com/c/plantmaforestry

New order for Brazil!

Joakim Eckerström — Thu, 02 Feb 2023 13:36:20 +0000

Following the successful trials in Brazil we are happy to announce that we have signed a deal with our South American partner Timber in Curitiba, Brazil, for 3 machines to be delivered during 2023!

Thanks to the flexibility of the concept and the great support of the Timber crew we have shown that we are able to handle different kinds of seedlings and adjust the ground preparation for different ground conditions and requests, and we have now confirmed that we have the ability to plant both Pine and Eucalyptus seedlings with good results in Brazilian soil.

We are grateful for the confidence in the PlantMax and see a great future in the Brazilian market. Vamos!

Grangärde Konsult och Innovation AB acquires Alftaprodukter AB in Alfta, Sweden

Joakim Eckerström — Mon, 09 Jan 2023 12:02:17 +0000

Grangärde Konsult och Innovation AB, based in Grangärde, signed an agreement on Jan 9^th for the acquisition of all shares in Alftaprodukter AB and thus also their wholly owned subsidiary MidiFlex AB.

Alftaprodukter is a leading supplier of mobile hydraulics solutions and is certified according to FR2000, Certified Excellence partner to Bosch Rexroth as well as Mobile Technology Center to Parker. The company has been a reliable partner for spare parts for forest machines since 1993 and over the years has built up a great deal of expertise in designing mobile hydraulics and control systems. www.alftaprodukter.se

Grangärde Konsult och Innovation AB is the parent company of a group with a background in design and manufacturing as well as international establishment of sales and service of equipment for modern forestry. Since 2018, the focus of the business has been the mechanized planting of forest seedlings through the company Plantma AB, which will now be a sister company to Alftaprodukter and MidiFlex.
www.plantmaforestry.com

Since the start of the Plantma project Alftaprodukter has been involved as an active partner and, in addition to supplying the MidiFlex scarifier, has also been involved in developing the control system and electrical, hydraulics and pneumatics solutions for the project.

In 2022 the first series of the production version, PlantMax X2,was assembled by Alftaprodukter in its extended premises in Alfta.

With the acquisition, this collaboration is further strengthened and in 2023, work will begin to scale up the production of PlantMax and MidiFlex to meet the great demand for planting machines from large parts of the world.

Alftaprodukter will be operated in the same way as today and the acquisition changes nothing for existing customers and suppliers within the company’s various business areas.

Former owners and management will remain working and continue to contribute to the daily operations with their unique competence and their great commitment to both employees and customers.

“It is very gratifying to welcome Alftaprodukter to the group today. A stable and well-managed company with fantastic staff with solid competence and great commitment that we have worked closely with in recent years. We look forward to further developing our collaboration in the future and working together to deliver Swedish planting machines to all parts of the world,” says Stig Linderholm, Grangärde Konsult och Innovation AB.

The sellers Stefan Carlsson and Stefan Hedlund emphasize that it feels good to find a buyer who works from a long-term perspective and has extensive experience in the industry. We are proud of what we have built and look forward to seeing the company continue to grow and develop in a positive direction.

Stefan Carlsson, CEO Alfta products
+46(0)271 754 113
stefan.carlsson@alftaprodukter.se

Stig Linderholm, Chairman of the Board Grangärde Konsult och Innovation AB
+46 (0)70 220 58 03
stig.linderholm@gkiab.com

Newsletter August 2022

Joakim Eckerström — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 07:08:24 +0000

The Plantma team keeps growing

As usual the newsletter starts with an introduction of new team members!
This August our team has grown by 2: Daniel Melin in Purchasing and Logistic and Markus Pettersson as our new Instructor. Daniel will be at our main Office in Borlänge Science Park making sure we have the material we need for the production and after sales of our planting machines while Markus will travel the world starting up machines and training operators and service personnel in the skills it takes to make the most of them. Welcome onboard guys!

Pan Pac Forest Products New Zealand has signed up for a PlantMax!

The interest in our PlantMax planting machine is growing all over the world and we are happy to announce that we have an agreement in place for a machine to be delivered to Pan Pac Forest Products New Zealand by the end of Q1 2023!

“Given the need for forestry to be able to adapt and investigate new technology and with the proven success of this high efficiency planter in Sweden, US and Canada, Pan Pac is excited to partner and test the Plantma X2 into the NZ forestry environment.” Says Sean Wright, Forestry Manager at Pan Pac Forest Products.

”Even though Sweden and New Zealand are on opposite sides of the planet, the challenges faced in regeneration of forests are very much similar, and we are happy and proud to have a solution that easily adapts to the local needs and can plant a wide variety of seedlings in a wide range of conditions” – Magnus Sandström, CEO of Plantma Forestry

2022 Southern and Northeastern Forest Nursery Association Joint Meeting

We got the pleasure to participate and present our planting machine “PlantMax X2” at the Southern and Northeastern Forest Nursery Association conference in July, which was held in Charleston, SC. It was a very well-organized conference and we learned new and interesting things about the nursery business. We met both familiar and new faces and they all showed a lot of interest in our product. Our Product Manager Christer Larsson gave a well visited presentation and even when we had a thunderstorm shutting down all power at the conference center he carried on in the dark!

The US tour has become a tour of North America as the machine has moved on to Canada

After a very successful run throughout the planting season of the southeast US, from the foothills of the Appalachian mountains in Alabama, to the Piney woods of Texas, to the Gulf Coast of Florida, we have spent late spring and summer in the Great forest of New Brunswick Canada.

With great support from our local partners at Log Max Forestry in Moncton, JD Irving has put the machine to the test in various conditions. Just like in the US there are constantly new challenges and new seedlings, but thanks to the versatility and flexibility of the machine we have yet to come across anything unplantable! No matter where we go – just give us a moment to get to know the ground and fine tune for the challenges at hand and the seedlings will be placed firmly but gently in the ground for a good start of a long journey upwards to the sky. Naturally this procedure is more time consuming the first time we come across new conditions. As the learnings from each new terrain are well documented, the next time we are in similar conditions the fine tuning will be done at the touch of a few buttons.

The machine will keep planting in Canada for some time before returning to the US as the new planting season takes off.

For more information on this, contact David Crouch at david.crouch@plantmaforestry.com or 1-334-750-3286

To stay updated on what we’re doing – Sign up for the newsletter on the website www.plantmaforestry.com

And follow us on social media:
Facebook/Instagram/LinkedIn @plantmaforestry

Newsletter March 2022

Joakim Eckerström — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 12:46:58 +0000

Planting the forests of tomorrow

The Plantma team keeps growing
The initial development phase of the Plantma X project is officially over and our focus now is to put more machines to work and continue adaptions to local conditions. Naturally this means more people are needed and we are now putting in place an organizational structure to build for the future.For this reason we are happy to welcome Magnus Sandström onboard as our new CEO for Plantma Forestry!Magnus has a solid background in international sales and service of forestry machinery, and is looking forward to building a strong company to back up the planting machine of the future!

Holmen Skog has signed up for a Plantma X
We are very happy to announce that the first machine delivery in 2022 will be for Holmen Skog!
Holmen has been part of the trials during 2021 and has now also taken the step to invest in a machine and put it to work in the Swedish forests. We are looking forward to the startup and to a good future relationship where we will assist in the development of the logistics around the machine and its operation, to utilize the maximum potential of the Plantma X in Swedish forestry conditions.
https://www.holmen.com/sv/skog/nyheter/holmen-satsar-pa-maskin-for-samtidig-markberedning-och-plantering/

US tour continues

The US tour is still moving forward and we have now planted seedlings in Alabama, Texas and Florida!

More videos are up on YouTube and there is still a lot more to come. www.youtube.com/c/plantmaforestry
We have been hard at work testing the machine in different conditions and so far the machine has surpassed all expectations and it is obvious to anyone visiting the machine that Plantma X will have a big role to play in the future planting of forests in the US. And not just the containerized Loblolly seedlings we set out to plant at first, but we have also successfully planted containerized Longleaf pine and even more impressively; we have managed to adapt the plant feeding to put down bare root Loblolly seedlings with excellent results! Naturally there is a limit to how big seedlings we can handle, but this limit has been pushed during the last couple of months and after some minor adjustments we are now able to plant the vast majority of the seedlings used in the southeast US.

For more information on this, contact David Crouch at david.crouch@plantmaforestry.com or 1-334-750-3286

More information

To stay updated on what we’re doing – Sign up for the newsletter on the website www.plantmaforestry.com

And follow us on social media:
Facebook/Instagram/LinkedIn @plantmaforestry
www.youtube.com/c/plantmaforestry

Newsletter December 2021

Joakim Eckerström — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 08:25:40 +0000

Planting the forests of tomorrow

Plantma Forestry

Plantma X has crossed the ocean! Plantma X just rolled off the boat in Savannah harbor! It’s been a long journey and the Plantma X is now eager to stretch its legs on American soil. Christer, who just flew in from Sweden, and David will be starting up the US planting in Alabama. They will also be doing training for a team from a local contractor who will be operating the machine going forward. Parts and support will be provided with the help of our friends at SFE, Scandinavian Forestry Equipment (https://scandforestry.com/)
Serious amounts of seedlings are just about to get planted!

Planting in the US and demos The planting in the US will commence within the next couple of days and will go on throughout the South East planting season, with sites in Alabama, Florida and Texas. Our first showcase days will be near Lafayette, AL on December 16-17.
Times each day will be from 9 am- 3 pm.
The site is being supplied by Backwoods Forestry. Visitors can sign in to receive forester continuing education credit hours and Professional logging management credit hours and endorsed by the Alabama Forestry association. For more information on this, contact David Crouch at david.crouch@plantmaforestry.com or 1-334-750-3286

The team keeps growing The Plantma project started out with just a few people involved and everyone has been doing an amazing job getting the machine to this level. One member of the team who has been instrumental to the development of the Plantma X is Stefan Hedlund at Alftaprodukter/MidiFlex. He has not only programmed the brain of the planter but also done a great job on the hydraulic, electric and pneumatic systems along with the rest of the team. Apart from these duties, Stefan and his colleagues at Alftaprodukter will now also be doing the installation of the upcoming planting units in 2022. To further strengthen the future development, we are happy to welcome Patrik Säterdal onboard! Patrik is an experienced System Developer and for the last 15 years he has been programming forestry machinery software for Log Max and Eco Log. Patrik will be responsible for development of the software controlling the planting unit as well as integrations with other systems.

Future The interest in our Plantma X is growing worldwide and we will be making more machines starting in Q1 2022. We are very happy to say that one of these units will be going to Brazil, in cooperation with our good friends at Timberforest in Curitiba. http://en.timberforest.com.br/
More information on this will follow. To stay updated on what we’re doing – Sign up for the newsletter on the website www.plantmaforestry.com

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