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Ponsse News 1/08 Editorial

Although demand for wood products is decreasing in Europe and especially in North America,the pulp and paper market has remained rather stable. In the emerging markets, such as China, Russia, South America and India, the need for forest industry products keeps increasing. Thanks to the good market situation and increasing interest in bio energy, demand for forest machines has
strengthened. Especially in Finland, because of the bad logging year 2006–2007 and the effect of the Russian wood export duties, wood purchasing volumes have grown remarkably. Growth is expected to continue in the coming year.

Fast-growing and productive plantations are becoming an increasingly important source of wood on a global scale. The mechanisation of wood harvesting in plantations means new markets, where we want to have a strong presence. Therefore, we established new subsidiaries in Uruguay and China last year.

Ensuring a sufficient number of competent forest machine operators in the future is a remarkable challenge for the whole industry. Promoting the image of the business and making it attractive to young people requires cooperation between different actors in the whole field. The role of training is significant, and that is where we at Ponsse want to invest globally. Our latest investment in the development of training and promotion of the cut-to-length method is the cooperation with the Moscow State Forest University. Our goal is to offer extensive training in the cut-to-length method in cooperation with the biggest forestry university in Russia. Increasing logging volumes mean that more forest machine operators are needed, and Ponsse wants to be involved in this development.

In the course of the past year we have renewed our products. Ergo has been improved and now a new, ten-wheel, five-axle forest machine, ideal for harvesting in soft peat lands, is in the testing phase. This machine will be taken into production next summer.

Last year all of us at Ponsse had the chance to live unforgettable moments while following the success of the two sportsmen we are sponsoring: Tero Pitkämäki and Mikko Hirvonen. Tero Pitkämäki took gold at the World Championships in Osaka; Mikko Hirvonen, for his part, finished third in the final standings last season and next season will occupy a new, important seat as Ford’s number one driver. We wish Tero success in the Peking Olympics and Mikko in his chase for the championship!

Approximately 6,000 guests visited Ponsse in 2007. During the visits we exchanged news with our customers and received good tips and advice for the improvement of our products. We want to thank our customers for their valuable cooperation and wish everyone a successful year 2008!