Komatsu Ltd. (President and CEO: Hiroyuki Ogawa) (hereafter “Komatsu”) today announced that Komatsu Forest AB (President: Hiroyuki Umeda) (hereafter “Komatsu Forest”), Komatsu’s wholly owned subsidiary, engaging in manufacture and sales of forest machinery and based in Umea, Sweden, began production at its new plant.
The new plant has consolidated old plants located separately mainly in Umea, optimizing the production process and layout. It has also adopted new manufacturing engineering benefits, including an automatic assembly line with automated guided vehicles (AGVs) for the first time in the Komatsu, achieving 30% improvement of productivity compared to old plants. Additionally, it has achieved carbon neutrality, for the first time in Komatsu’s plants, through a substantial reduction of power consumption volume by adopting renewable energy supply facilities, such as solar panels which cover about 19,000 m2 of the roof and heating equipment which uses geothermal energy. By achieving eco-friendly production, Komatsu Forest will contribute to creating a sustainable local community.
As management targets in the current mid-term management plan, Komatsu has been working to reduce CO2 emissions by 50% from our products in use and in production each by 2030 from 2010. As a challenging target, it is working to become carbon neutral by 2050.
As part of its efforts, Komatsu upholds sustainable forestry in the forest machine business, which includes not only harvesting but also planting and growing trees. It is also contributing to safe forestry operation by mechanizing harvesting work and promoting smart forestry in which it analyzes forest potential based on drone-surveyed data for sustainable forest management. Since 2004 when it was acquired by Komatsu, Komatsu Forest has played the central role of Komatsu’s forest machine business as the core base of machine development and production. By launching production at the new plant, Komatsu Forest is going to accelerate its carbon neutral efforts, as it works to strengthen and expand its forest machine business.
While continuing its commitment to Quality and Reliability and working to maximize its corporate value, Komatsu is working to achieve safe, highly-productive, smart and clean workplaces of the future through DANTOTSU Value (ESG solutions and improvement of earnings through customer value creation).