INDUSTRIES

Solutions for Brazil's Rapidly Growing Forestry Industry on Display at ExpoForest

Customers in the Brazilian forestry industry purchase nearly 2,000 machines a year—making Expoforest Brazil 2014 the place to be for Caterpillar and its local dealers.

The trade show, held May 21-23, 2014, at International Paper’s timber forest in Mogi Cuacu, Brazil, saw an increase in attendance of more than 50 percent over the previous event. Many of those attendees stopped by the Caterpillar exhibit to view the 18 machines on display and chat with representatives from Cat^® dealers Pesa, Sotreq and Finning International.

“The forestry industry in Brazil is undergoing a transformation with the harvesting of timber expected to increase about 110% over the next seven years,” said Kevin Thieneman, general manager of Cat Forest Products. “With the forecasted industry growth, the show was naturally very well attended, and Caterpillar’s stand had great customer traffic.”

Customers who stopped by the exhibit got an up-close look at Cat dozers, hydraulic excavators, motor graders, soil compactors, wheel loaders, wheeled excavators, feller funchers, skidders and processors. These machines represent solutions for the complete forestry value stream—supporting customer needs from land management, to forestry road construction and maintenance, to the mill yard and harvesting.

That total solutions approach clearly appealed to attendees, as dealers Finning and Sotreq sold many machines as a direct result of the show.

“I think we had the right equipment on our site to show the entire forestry process,” said Gabriel Fuenzalida, forestry manager with Finning. “The number of people in attendance was more than expected, and the show was a big success.”