Global Forestry Equipment

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This study analyzes global supply of and demand for forestry equipment, including both purpose-built forestry machinery and agricultural and construction equipment adapted for use in forestry applications. The following types of products are covered:

• felling equipment
  • chainsaws (encompasses all chainsaws used in forestry operations, including chainsaws utilized only in on-site processing applications)
  • harvesters
  • feller bunchers and other felling equipment (e.g., feller directors, feller chippers, feller forwarders, feller skidders, harwarders, and harvester-skidders)
• extracting equipment
  • forwarders
  • skidders
  • other extracting equipment (e.g., cable yarding systems, farm tractors, shovel loggers, all-terrain vehicles, helicopters, combination machines)
• on-site processing equipment
  • chippers and grinders
  • delimbers (e.g., flail, gate, pull-through, and stroke models), slashers, and wood splitters
• other forestry equipment (e.g., loaders, mulchers, dozers and other logging site preparation machinery, brushcutters, scarifiers, tree planting machines, spreaders/sprayers, slash bundlers)
• separately sold parts and attachments (including harvesting and other cutting heads; saw chain, guide bars, blades, and teeth)

In addition to equipment used directly in mechanized and motor-manual (principally chainsaw-based) felling, extracting, on-site processing, and loading operations, the study covers equipment (such as dozers) used to prepare sites for harvesting operations.

Excluded from the scope of the study are:

• chainsaws used in construction, emergency rescue, lawn and garden care (including professional arborist products), and all other non-forestry settings
• vehicles utilized to transport personnel and equipment to and from forestry sites
• on-road trucks and trailers used to transport logs and wood chips from the landing to sawmills and other off-site facilities
• used forestry equipment of all types
• personal protection products like helmets and gloves; and axes, handsaws, and other non-powered equipment (such as log sleds/skids designed to be pulled by horses) used in manual logging operations

Excluding manual forestry operations, there are three major wood harvesting methods or systems: cut-to-length (or short-wood), whole-tree (or full-tree), and tree-length.

Equipment is categorized based on what is determined to be its main use in forestry operations worldwide, although some products are used in more than one application:

• Chainsaws, for example, are classified here as a felling product, even though on numerous logging sites, especially in developed nations, heavy machinery like feller bunchers is used to fell trees, and chainsaws are utilized to delimb and buck them.
• Harvesters are also considered a type of felling equipment, although they are subsequently used to delimb trees and cut them into sections before setting them down.

Complicating matters is the fact that many base machines can be converted from one type of forestry machine to another by changing attachments.

In addition, it is not uncommon for a base machine (like a construction-type excavator) to be bought from one manufacturer, and the cutting and bunching head and other components needed to convert it into a feller buncher to be purchased from one or more other suppliers:

• In order to avoid double counting in situations such as this, product demand is considered to be for a single piece of forestry equipment.
• The sales figures provided for separately sold parts and attachments are for replacement components and products bought for installation on an existing machine (for example, to convert a used farm tractor into a cable logging tower).

Historical data for 2010, 2015 and 2020, and forecasts to 2025 and 2030 are provided for demand in current (including inflation) US dollars and/or units. Forested land is calculated in hectares and roundwood production in cubic meters.