35th anniversary and new products at the Nordic region’s largest truck fair

Elmia Lastbil, which is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, was inaugurated by Sweden’s infrastructure minister, Tomas Eneroth (Social Democrat) on Wednesday in Jönköping, Sweden. The minister prioritised attending the fair for two of its four days, despite the ongoing campaign for national elections in just a few weeks’ time.

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“Elmia Lastbil is the major haulage event in the Nordic Region and this is where the whole industry meets. I wanted to demonstrate how important it is for me and the government to be here,” he said.

In addition to the ministerial visit, exhibitors presented new products and many smart truck body constructions and solutions.

“For us the fair is very important and a major meeting place,” commented Scania’s head of communications, Jennifer Erdtman. “Not just for ourselves but also for truck bodybuilders, customers and sales agents. Getting everyone together at the same place for a few days and thereby being able to access all this information is unique.”

Volvo Trucks were also very satisfied with their participation in the fair. One vehicle they exhibited was a truck that runs with the help of cooled methane gas.

“When it’s cooled into the liquid state it takes up 600 times less space and is therefore perfect to use for long-distance operations,” explains Jan Strandhede, head of PR and information for Volvo Trucks Sweden.

As well as presenting new products from exhibitors, Elmia Lastbil, together with its partners Trailer and the Swedish Association of Road Transport Companies, offered an extensive debate and discussion programme, seminars, school competitions, the highly popular Nordic Trophy, and the Swedish championships in crane operation and manoeuvring, which this year had a separate women’s category.

Since it began in 1983, Elmia Lastbil has grown continuously. This year the exhibition covered 75,000 square metres of programme space.

“We’ve updated the fair’s profile and now target students and young people even more than we did before. They are our industry colleagues and fair visitors of the future, which is a key issue for the whole industry,” explains Annika Brandin, fair manager of Elmia Lastbil. “I am very satisfied with the fair and would like to take this opportunity to extend a warm welcome to visitors and exhibitors to return to Jönköping again on 19 to 22 August 2020.”