The 54th Uddeholm Swedish Rally is taking place on 10-13 February in the Värmland forests around Hagfors. A large quantity of materials, ranging from complete tyre-workshops to advertising signs, provisions and barriers, must be loaded and unloaded for the event. Kalmar Sweden is sponsoring the rally by providing two fork-lift trucks (FLTs) that will be responsible for all materials handling in the depot at Råda Airport. This comes as a result of positive collaboration with Uddeholm Tooling, which has been the competition main sponsor since 2002.
The Swedish Rally is Sweden only annual all-category World Championship and, as such, is a real highlight for all rally enthusiasts. During the four days of the competition over 300,000 spectators will follow the progress of approximately 90 competing cars and drivers. The Hagfors region will be at the centre of the activities and is where many of the special legs will run. The rally will be followed by motoring journalists from all corners of the globe.
Last year the Swedish Rally was won by the Frenchman Sebastian Loeb in a Citroën Xsara. This year the rally is continuing to maintain a high level of racing standards with the announcement that both Henning Solberg and Marcus Grönholm will take positions on the starting line. Mr Solberg came sixth in last year's event and Mr Grönholm has won the event on three occasions since 2000, which is not surprising considering he is two-time World Rally Champion. All the best names in the WRC team are down to compete and all six World Championship teams are putting in at least two cars each.
Uddeholm Swedish Rally
Since 2002 Uddeholm Tooling has been the main sponsor of the competitions that come under the Uddeholm Swedish Rally umbrella. Bengt Eriksson, Transport Manager at Uddeholm Tooling, says:
"This year we have access to two Kalmar fork-lift trucks, which will be responsible for materials handling at the rally depot. The four day event will be a highly intensive handling period for the FLTs as there will be a large quantity of goods. We have a productive collaboration with Kalmar Sweden, which is sponsoring the competition through the provision of the trucks."
A large quantity of equipment
The two leading tyre companies, Michelin and Pirelli, are bringing 24 trucks containing complete tyre workshops, with tyres, rims and other peripheral equipment. An English TV company is using a number of large diesel generating plants, which are needed for transmissions along the competition track. With over 300,000 visitors expected, large quantities of provisions are also needed so that the public, the mass media and officials have a good time. These are among but a few of the materials that the FLTs will be expected to handle, unload and reload during the course of the competition. It is in this area that Kalmar Sweden will be performing numerous lifts for the SwedishRally.
More new trucks to Uddeholm
Uddeholm Tooling also uses Kalmar trucks in its ongoing production of the steel used in the manufacturing of its wide range of tools. Six new 18-tonne Kalmar trucks were recently delivered to Uddeholm. Kalmar Sweden and Uddeholm Tooling are natural partners, in both sporting and industrial terms.
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The caption for the photograph reads:
"Kalmar sponsors the Swedish Rally with two forklift trucks"
"Forklift truck and driver prepare to begin operations at the rally"
Kalmar is a global provider of heavy duty materials handling equipment and services to ports, intermodal traffic, terminals and demanding industrial customers. Kalmar focuses on supplying handling solutions that enable customers to operate with a high level of efficiency and reliability. Every fourth container or trailer transfer at terminals around the world is handled by a Kalmar machine.
Kalmar provides a large range of value added services such as maintenance contracts and fleet management. Manufacturing plants are situated in Sweden (as is the head office), in Finland, the Netherlands, Estonia, Malaysia, China and the USA.
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