Presenting Lotus Timber’s planing line (from left): Urmo Ilves (CEO of Lotus Timber), Aare Pilv (Export Sales Manager of Lotus Timber), Andrus Kurvits (CEO of MTG Eesti) © MTG Eesti
From 1999 to 2013, MTG Eesti’s shareholder was Maschinen Technik GmbH, a company headquartered in Germany which distributed machines, mainly from Scandinavian and US manufacturers, for the timber industry. Thanks to the early entry to the Baltic market and know-how from Germany, Sweden and the United States, MTG Eesti was able to acquire most of the leading sawmills and wood processing companies in the Baltic States as customers, such as Toftan, Vika Wood, Nelss (now AKZ), Stora Enso, Barrus, Rait, Lotus Timber, Latvijas Finieris, Graanul Invest, Palmako, Kurekss, Combiwood, Vincom or USG. MTG Eesti has helped to make the projects of many leading companies of the Baltic timber industry a reality.
Since its establishment, MTG Eesti has delivered over 40 scanners for the optimization of cross-cutting lines, more than 20 lumber sorting lines, several saw lines of different sizes, the biggest planing lines in the region and state-of-the-art profile board painting lines to customers in the Baltic States. The company has also sold a wide range of chippers, crushing machines, screens and vibrating conveyors to the Baltic timber and pellet industries. In addition, MTG Eesti has supplied sharpening, testing and maintenance equipment for cutting tools to most of the leading companies of the sharpening and timber industries in the region. In fact, most Baltic companies which manufacture and sharpen cutting tools, such as Kaur Trade, Lintera, MET-Terakeskus, Sentavo Tools, Metmatus, Singlis or LSAB, are MTG Eesti’s customers. Wear and spare parts for the equipment supplied by MTG Eesti and for a number of other machines and plants in the timber industry are sold as well.
At the moment, MTG Eesti is delivering a Ledinek finger-jointing line to the leading manufacturer of glue-laminated beams in Estonia. Also, several Microtec Goldeneye 900 and Goldeneye 300 scanners for lumber sorting will go to companies of the Baltic timber industry. This year, the company will install some Stenner band saws, a Paul-Rapid-Duo optimizing cross-cutting line together with a Microtec scanner, and a range of sawmill and planing equipment for Latvian companies. MTG Eesti also regularly delivers Mosca strapping and ATS tape machines as well as packaging and shrink-wrapping machines manufactured by Fischer Maschinenfabrik.
Consulting, marketing and service of the highest quality are the core values of MTG Eesti, which also boasts many years of experience and a high level of technical expertise. The company’s priority is to ensure customer satisfaction and the functionality of the machines and plants.
New times, new challenges
The newest and most modern planing line in the Baltic states can be found at Lotus Timber: The line includes various machines manufactured by System Hall, Fischer Maschinenfabrik and Rosens Vision © MTG Eesti
Up until 2022, MTG Eesti also exported equipment and spare parts to Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Today, however, change is also affecting the timber industry, not least because of the war in Ukraine and changes in supply chains resulting from the pandemic and high inflation, which has negatively impacted the economic sentiment in the Eurozone in general. “The slowdown in the economy and weaker demand on the Scandinavian and Baltic real estate markets are serious challenges for us and our customers,” the company says.
In addition, the timber industry is also feeling the repercussions of the damage caused by climate change, changes in forest ecosystems and the quality of the wood. Given these changing conditions where, for example, 30% of the spruce logs are already damaged by bark beetles in some areas, it is vital to find solutions quickly so that damaged wood can be detected in the sawmills’ sorting lines. Growing demand for birch and aspen wood as well as increasing production volumes offer additional opportunities for the supply of finishing lines for the production of wood furniture, furniture for saunas, veneers and plywood.
