The PONSSE Scor­pion Giant belon­ging to forest mac­hine ent­repre­neur Mikko Kal­li­nen is cur­rently enga­ged in thin­ning a state forest in Suo­mus­salmi. The first thin­ning in the area was per­for­med around 15 years ago, and now it is time for the second thin­ning. This lea­ves the forest a little thin­ner than in Kallinen’s own region of North Kare­lia. The job is far from home but otherwise plea­sant, as the forest floor is quite flat and free of sto­nes and bus­hes, the forest roads are in excel­lent con­di­tion, and the area covers a rea­so­nable size, so there is enough to cut for the har­ves­ter and forwar­der all the way from August to Novem­ber.

“Usually, Met­sä­hal­li­tus, the state-owned fore­stry admi­ni­stra­tion, is my direct cus­to­mer, but in this case, I am actually a subcont­rac­tor. The stands mar­ked for cut­ting are visible on the Wood­Force app. A monthly order amount has been agreed with Met­sä­hal­li­tus, which we aim to supply with the stands mar­ked in Wood­Force. The cont­rac­tor has quite a lot of free­dom to choose the stands. There are many good things about this sys­tem,” says Kal­li­nen.

His com­pany Metsä Kal­li­nen Oy has two cont­racts with Met­sä­hal­li­tus, one of which is tem­po­rary and the other is valid until furt­her notice. Prices are adjus­ted accor­ding to an index.

“Our home­base is in Pol­vi­järvi, and we also have a hall in Joen­suu. We usually ope­rate in the regions of Joen­suu, Juuka, Kaavi, Hei­nä­vesi, Outo­kumpu, Liperi, Tuus­niemi and Lep­pä­virta. I came here to Suo­mus­salmi, as it was a little qui­e­ter there.”

Quadruple growth in five years

Kal­li­nen comes from a farm and lear­ned to work with mac­hi­nes at a young age. A trac­tor and trai­ler were used to fetch wood from the family’s forests for their own needs. After ser­ving his consc­rip­tion in the army and comple­ting his educa­tion, he ope­ra­ted forest mac­hi­nes for four years as an emplo­yee for anot­her cont­rac­tor. He foun­ded his own com­pany in 2007 with his brot­her, who is no lon­ger invol­ved in ope­ra­tions.

“I star­ted from scratch. We had just two mac­hi­nes in 2019: a PONSSE Scor­pion and a PONSSE Wisent. Today we have eight mac­hi­nes: a PONSSE Scor­pion Giant, two Scor­pions and a John Deere 1270G as our har­ves­ters and three Buf­fa­los and a John Deere 1510G as our forwar­ders.”

The com­pany now has 15 emplo­yees, inclu­ding its owners. Kal­li­nen owns 90 percent of the com­pany and Joni Kar­vi­nen 10 percent. Kar­vi­nen ori­gi­nally joi­ned the com­pany as an emplo­yee but was keen to purc­hase a share in the com­pany. Kar­vi­nen’s fat­her and uncle also work for the com­pany. One emplo­yee dri­ves a flat­bed truck prac­tically full-time in order to move the company’s forest mac­hi­nes, as well as those belon­ging to other com­pa­nies.

“I have grown the com­pany quite rapidly in recent years, as there have been good cont­racts and ope­ra­tors avai­lable. I’ve had a bit of luck, because it’s usually not that easy to find com­pe­tent ope­ra­tors. Even now we are trai­ning one 17-year-old appren­tice.”

“Growing our ope­ra­tions from two mac­hi­nes to eight in just five years has not been easy. I have had to work long days at times in order to accu­mu­late suf­ficient capi­tal, but it’s get­ting a little easier now. For example, here in Suo­mus­salmi, I only work one long shift with this mac­hine. Our other mac­hi­nes in North Kare­lia and North Savo usually work in two shifts.”

Inva­sion of Ukraine inc­rea­sed demand

When wood imports from Rus­sia stop­ped due to the inva­sion of Ukraine a couple of years ago, local har­ves­ting has inc­rea­sed, especially in Eas­tern Fin­land. At Kal­li­nen’s com­pany, about half of the har­ves­ting invol­ves final fel­ling, 30 percent thin­ning and 20 percent pri­mary thin­ning. In prac­tice, he does not har­vest energy tim­ber.

“The piles of birch do not stand by the road­side for long, as there has been a shor­tage of it ever since the end of Rus­sian imports.”

Kal­li­nen has expe­rience with forest mac­hi­nes of all colours. He con­si­ders Ponsse to be the safe choice with clearly the best main­te­nance ser­vices.

“Ponsse spare parts are always avai­lable, even if it means taking the neces­sary parts straight from the assembly plant. We have a spare parts con­tai­ner in our hall, where parts are deli­ve­red during the eve­ning if they are orde­red on a week­day. Ponsse’s main­te­nance ser­vices are also really good both in the Joen­suu region and here in Suo­mus­salmi.”

Nine years of expe­rience with Scor­pions

Kal­li­nen was one of the first cus­to­mers to take deli­very of a PONSSE Scor­pion nine years ago. Since then, he has gai­ned expe­rience with seve­ral PONSSE Scor­pions and now the first PONSSE Scor­pion Giant. Anot­her Giant is already on order. The company’s mac­hi­nes are usually replaced when they are two to three years old and have been dri­ven for around 8000 to 10,000 hours.

“The PONSSE Giant arri­ved at the turn of June-July, and now in mid-Sep­tem­ber it has been dri­ven for 725 hours. Thanks to its dual-circuit hydrau­lics, it has more power in the drive and crane than the base Scor­pion. Especially with thick trunks, the Giant pro­duces more cubic met­res than the Scor­pion. We are cur­rently using a H7 har­ves­ter head, but the new one will have an H6.”

Kallinen’s mac­hi­nes all have cab sus­pen­sion, auxi­liary work lights, and lights under the engine cover, as well as a refri­ge­ra­tor and an oven that can be used to heat food.

“The bread quota was fil­led years ago,” laughs Kal­li­nen.

The chains have been switc­hed to Pewag tracks in all the mac­hi­nes. The mac­hi­nes also have Black Bruin rota­tors, which Kal­li­nen ini­tially got to know on the recom­men­da­tion of a Ponsse sales repre­sen­ta­tive.