Komatsu To Acquire Swedish Silviculture Attachment Manufacturer

Through Komatsu Forest AB, a wholly owned subsidiary in Sweden, Komatsu Ltd. is going to acquire Bracke Forest AB, headquartered in Bräcke, Sweden, which develops, manufactures, and sells application-specific attachments for silviculture.

Tree planting is expected to expand worldwide for lumber production and environmental concerns, such as the promotion of carbon neutrality. At the same time, the need for mechanization is growing, especially because tree planting is labor-intensive work, with an increase in planting in remote areas, and a decrease in the workforce.

With extensive know-how of silviculture over the years, Bracke develops, manufactures, and sells application-specific attachments for use in silviculture processes. Since 2014, Bracke and Komatsu have engaged in joint development by sharing respective technologies and experience accumulated over the years, respectively in forest and construction machines. In FY2021, Komatsu launched the D61EM-23M0, the world’s first bulldozer-based automatic crawler planter, in Brazil, that performs automatic traveling, stopping, and planting on preset courses.

Even after the acquisition, Komatsu will continue to incorporate Bracke’s technologies and expertise in the field of planting in order to accelerate its pace of mechanization of all processes other than harvesting and forwarding, which have already been mechanized. Komatsu will work to generate synergy for smart forestry and provide higher value-added products in order to enhance the safety and productivity of customers’ jobsite operations and make carbon-neutral contributions.