Forest Products Industry

Monaghan, Ireland – 9 December 2024 – Combilift, the global leader in material handling solutions, has been awarded Company of the Year at the prestigious Business & Finance Awards 2024, in association with KPMG Ireland. This remarkable achievement marks Combilift’s 9th major win in the last three months, solidifying its position as an industry leader.

The Company of the Year award, presented to Combilift’s CEO Martin McVicar by Seamus Hand from KPMG at the 50th Business & Finance Awards ceremony – held in Dublin, is a testament to the company’s significant impact on both the Irish economy and the global market. Combilift, with annual revenue exceeding €500 million, has continued to thrive with its export-focused business model, with 98% of its operations serving international markets.

Since its founding in 1998, Combilift has built a global reputation as the largest manufacturer of multi-directional, articulated, and sideloading forklifts, as well as large material handling equipment such as straddle carriers, with over 85,000 units in operation across 85 countries. The company’s commitment to innovation, sustainability, and research and development has been pivotal to its exceptional growth, making it a true leader in the material handling industry.

Martin McVicar, CEO of Combilift, said:

“This award reflects the bold vision and relentless drive that has been at the heart of Combilift since Robert Moffett and I started in 1998. Every forklift, every innovation, and every milestone reflects our commitment to pushing boundaries and transforming material handling worldwide. This moment belongs to our employees, our dealers, and our customers, who rely on us to deliver quality material handling solutions to optimise their warehouse space.”

Joining a Legacy of Excellence

Winning this award places Combilift among an elite group of previous winners, including industry giants Glen Dimplex, Kingspan, Primark, Google, and Intel. As a homegrown Irish business with a global footprint, this latest recognition serves as a powerful reminder of the company’s ongoing success and its critical role in shaping the future of the material handling industry.

Photo  L-R. Ian Hyland – Business & Finance, Martin McVicar -Combilift, Seamus Hand – KPMG

For previous Combilift posts click here.

 

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The first Ponsse Mammoth Road Show event in Brazil highlighted the qualities of this robust forwarder for the high-demand work. After weeks operating in Bahia, owned by Veracel, the equipment is now heading to another challenge, in Minas Gerais, at Cenibra. Source: Timberbiz The PONSSE Mammoth is the brand’s largest forwarder, with a capacity of 25 tons, and has proven to be very efficient for the high production demands of Brazilian companies. The Road Show consists of a traveling event organized by Ponsse, which visits several of the company’s clients and aims to put this giant to the test in the different realities of transloading operations found in Brazilian companies. The challenge is to operate for a few weeks in each of these companies in order to observe its performance in different situations. This was the first time that Veracel hosted an event like this. Veracel’s Operational Excellence Coordinator, Pedro Paulo Almeida, highlighted the high performance of the equipment on the flat lands of Bahia. According to him, the gains in productivity and energy efficiency, compared to the PONSSE Elephant King (20-ton forwarder), were 20% to 30%. “This is a solution that allows us to think about optimizing not only the harvesting process, but also the supply chain, such as roads, timber transportation and land use by forestry companies,” Mr Almeida said. Ponsse Brazil Sales Manager Rodrigo Marangoni said that since its launch, they have seen that it would have a high level of acceptance in the Brazilian market due to its characteristics. “We already have other results that indicate that it really allows for better planning of the entire forestry chain, adding reliability, efficiency and productivity. Not to mention greater safety and ergonomics for operators,” he said. In the next challenge, in Minas Gerais, the Ponsse Mammoth will encounter operational situations that are different from those in Bahia, such as steep areas. “Our goal is to test the equipment from different perspectives so that we can have comparative elements and thus prove that it can adapt to the different realities of our country,” Mr Marangoni said. During the test period of a few weeks, the company will receive full support from the Ponsse team, from technical training to maintenance service support, as well as comprehensive data management. At the end of this period, a field day will be held at each customer to share the results obtained, providing detailed analysis and valuable insights into the performance of the Ponsse Mammoth.  

The carbon dioxide generated by pulp mills is a valuable, largely untapped side stream that could be captured and used as a raw material for products replacing fossil-based materials and fuels as the technology and markets develop. Source: Timberbiz “Carbon capture offers Finland a major opportunity to build a new industry – and to undertake significant climate action, as the use of wood-based carbon dioxide reduces fossil raw material consumption and the related carbon dioxide emissions. It also promotes the EU’s climate targets,” says Kaija Pehu-Lehtonen, project director of Metsä Group’s carbon capture project. Metsä Group is a forerunner in capturing carbon dioxide generated by pulp mills. Its production units generate around 12 million tonnes of wood-based carbon dioxide annually, and the company is increasingly focusing on exploring its large-scale capture. According to Pehu-Lehtonen, Metsä Group aims to develop its mills in accordance with the bioproduct mill concept. This means making ever greater use of pulp mill side streams to resource efficiently convert wood into increasingly valuable bioproducts. Harnessing carbon dioxide as a raw material is one example. This autumn, Metsä Group and ANDRITZ, a technology company, completed their first survey examining what the capture of some four million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the flue gases of a mill the size of the Kemi bioproduct mill would mean in terms of technology and energy. Carbon capture requires a great deal of heat energy. To account for this, the survey specifically explored ways to integrate carbon capture into the bioproduct mill as energy-efficiently as possible. According to Pehu-Lehtonen, the survey demonstrated that it is possible to capture all the carbon dioxide generated by a large bioproduct mill but that it requires major investments and developments in the related technology and market before it can result in a profitable business. “Twenty percent of the heat energy required for carbon capture can be obtained from the bioproduct mill’s current heat flows. New technological solutions are needed for the remainder,” Pehu-Lehtonen explains. Metsä Group is proceeding stage by stage in the carbon capture project and will pilot carbon capture next summer at the Rauma pulp mill with ANDRITZ. The pilot stage will be followed by plans for a potential demo plant. If carbon capture proves viable, it will provide the forest industry with a new high-volume wood-based raw material giving rise to investments, workplaces and tax revenue – not to mention climate impacts.