Phenomenal FinnMETKO

People’s enthusiasm for the return of live face-to-face events was clearly evident during last week’s FinnMETKO 2022 exhibition which took place in Jämsa, Finland and attracted 330 exhibitors.

I visited the show with my friend Esa Suominen of Konepörssi magazine on the Thursday, which was the opening day of the 3-day event. From early opening it was very clear that it was going to be a busy day, and there was a real buzz around the show which, somewhat unsurprisingly takes place at a venue within a forest.

By the end of day one some 6,500 visitors had come through the gates, all eager to see the latest in forestry machinery and associated equipment, which is big business in Finland and the wider Nordic region. By the end of the final day on Saturday, at least 27,350 visitors in total had attended the show, a very impressive tally by any stretch of the imagination.

With my esteemed Earthmovers Magazine colleague Eoghan Daly attending to cover the forestry side of things, I decided to head off and checkout the more construction industry related products, so in this blog post I will present some of my favourites.

Finnish Hyundai Construction Equipment dealers Suomen Telakone had a wide range of the latest A-Series products on display, including the stunning new HW170ACR compact radius wheeled excavator, which featured a TAB (two-piece-boom) Engcon tiltrotator and full Scandinavian style LED lighting package.

Talking of wheeled excavators Hidromek main dealers for Finland, Honka Trading Oy, brought along the Turkish built HMK150WR wheeled excavator which featured a similar specification to the Hyundai example.

Avesco Cat the Finnish Caterpillar dealer presented a number of its latest Next Generation models including this 315GC compact radius hydraulic excavator, which was sporting a Rototilt tiltrotator. Two other models were also showcasing screening buckets from Finnish manufacturer ALLU, but more on that later.

Deeper down in the forestry area Finnish tree shear and attachment manufacturer TMK were demonstrating its products including this Multi-Grab mounted below and Engcon tiltrotator on a JCB 55Z-1 mini excavator.

No visit to a Finnish machinery show is complete without a visit to the AVANT stand, and at FinnMETKO among the wide range of machines on display was the Stage V engine equipped, 860i compact loader.

It was great to catch up with our friends over on the Real Machinery stand. Real Machinery are main Finnish dealers for Doosan construction equipment among others, and they presented the all new DX55R reduced tailswing 6-tonne class mini excavator.

CASE dealers Rentti had a new CX210E E-Series excavator on the demo plot, and also presented one example of the new D-Series mini excavators, the 2-tonne class CX18D from the exciting Italian built range.

Finally in this post, we head back to the ALLU stand where the Finnish screening bucket specialists were showcasing the new lightweight Veloci screening bucket which on this occasion was mounted on a Cat 305CR mini excavator.

The Veloci series comes in five sizes and is designed for compact excavators, loaders, tractors and skid steer loaders. The attachment features a strong steel shell with welded joints, while the screening stars are made from tough polyurethane material for easy screening of soils.

Checkout the Veloci in action in our video below.

Talking about the success of the show exhibition manager Tapio Hirvikoski said, "Exhibitors' and visitors' comments have been very positive. People clearly needed to get into the atmosphere of a big trade fair again and get to know the new products and meet acquaintances from the machinery industry,"