The story
Valtra's roots go back to the Finnish State Rifle Factory founded in Jyväskylä in 1928 and the Finnish State Artillery Factory, which moved from Helsinki to Jyväskylä in 1939. Following the Second World War in 1945, the former defensive weaponry plants owned by the Finnish State were combined under a new organisation, the State Metal Works (Valtion Metallitehtaat), the name of which was then shortened to Valmet. Following the war, the artillery and rifle plants were converted to produce goods for war reparations and civil use, although the rifle plant also continued to produce military and civilian weapons until 1992.
The first Valmet tractors were manufactured in 1951. The prototypes and first 10 tractors were the result of cooperation between the artillery and rifle plants, after which tractor production was consolidated within the rifle plant in Tourula, Jyväskylä. The first tractors actually used parts of cannon barrel for their subframes.
The first tractor model was the Valmet 15, the model number indicating its horsepower. The tractor was designed to replace horses on small Finnish farms and in the forests. The upgraded Valmet 20 model followed in 1955.
The Valmet 33 D model was launched in 1957 with a modern diesel engine and the fuel tank located between the clutch and the gearbox, which became a trademark of Valmet and Valtra tractors. The protected position of the fuel tank also made it particularly well suited to forest work. The displacement of the three-cylinder Valmet 309 D engine was 2.7 litres, and it produced 37 horsepower (28 kW). The engine was very modern for its time. It had excellent cold start properties and featured liquid engine cooling, wet cylinder liners and direct injection.
Factory in Brazil
By the late 1950s Valmet exported several hundred tractors a year to Brazil. The Brazilian government planned to nationalise tractor production, however, and announced a bidding competition for establishing factories there. Valmet's factory project was approved, and production began rapidly in 1960 starting with the Valmet 360 D model.
Tractor cabs became more widespread in the 1960s, especially in the Nordic markets, due to more stringent safety regulations and comfort requirements. The original Valmet factory in Tourula, Finland, could not assemble tractors with cabs due to the low ceiling, and the factory area near the expanding centre of Jyväskylä began to be too small. Accordingly, tractor production moved in 1969 to Suolahti, where the state owned an industrial site. Transmission production followed in 1975 following the construction of a new plant on the site. Marketing and engineering operations moved to Suolahti in 2005 and 2006.
Valmet acquires Volvo BM tractors
Valtra traces its origin not only to Valmet, but also Bolinder, Munktell and Volvo. Bolinder-Munktell merged with the Swedish company Volvo in 1950 to form BM Volvo (later Volvo BM, now Volvo Construction Equipment). In the late 1970s Volvo BM decided to focus on construction equipment and sell off its tractor and forest machinery business. Valmet was already bigger than Volvo BM in the tractor market and was keen to invest more in the business. Volvo BM and Valmet signed a letter of intent in November 1978, and the final agreement was signed on 1 October 1979.
Work on designing a new range of tractors designated Volvo BM Valmet began already in January 1979. Scantrac AB, a joint venture between Volvo BM and Valmet, was responsible for engineering and marketing operations, as Volvo BM wanted to transfer its sales network and customers to Valmet. Tractor production at Volvo BM's factory in Eskilstuna, Sweden, was discontinued, and the factory switched to manufacturing construction equipment.
Read the full text
The first Volvo BM Valmet models were unveiled in Sweden in May 1982. Volvo supplied the cabs and transmission components to all 505–905 series tractors between 1982 and 1991. After taking over Volvo BM's tractor operations, Valmet became the biggest tractor brand in Northern Europe, having already been the market leader in Finland and one of the most popular brands in Brazil.
Factories in Tanzania and Portugal and license manufacturing
In 1980 Valmet and the government of Tanzania set up an assembly plant for tractors in Kibaha. The Trama company was established in the spirit of development cooperation and was 80 percent owned by the Tanzanian State Motor Corporation, 10 percent by Valmet, and 10 percent by Finnfund. Between 1983 and 1989 the Tanzanian plant manufactured around 2000 Valmet 604 Series tractors, with 10 to 12 percent of components sourced locally.
Valmet has also had two factories in Portugal. Between 1964 and 1967, the FAP factory produced around 700 Valmet 361 Series tractors under license in Aveiro. In 1989, Valmet Tractor S.A. was established in Portugal when it seemed likely the EU would limit sales of imported tractors through tariffs. The factory in Montijo operated from 1990 to 1997, producing around 1300 tractors in total. After Finland joined the EU the factory was no longer needed. Between 1995 and 1997 the factory in Montijo also produced tractors for the Austrian brand Steyr.
Valtra tractors have been manufactured under license in India by Eicher Tractor, which produced the Valmet 365 model and 320D engine for a few years beginning in 1997. In addition, Hema Endüstri/Hattat in Turkey has manufactured the Valtra A Series under license for the local market since 2004. Hema/Hattat has also manufactured small A Series models, sold under the Valtra brand around the world.
Valtra in turn manufactured the Massey Ferguson 4400 Series at the Suolahti factory for a few years beginning in 2005. The MF 4400 Series was based on the Valtra A Series.
The Valtra S Series has been manufactured at the AGCO factory in Beauvais, France, since 2009. From 2003 to 2007 the S Series was manufactured at the Suolahti factory. Beginning in 1989 the Valmet 8300 and 8600 models were also manufactured in Beauvais at what was then the Massey Ferguson factory. At the same time, Massey Ferguson began using Valmet diesel engines for its own models. Agritalia in turn manufactured Valtra 3000 Series vineyard tractors in the early 2000s.
In February 2015 a Valtra tractor, driven by former World Rally Champion, Juha Kankkunen, equipped with Nokian Tyres set a new world speed record for tractors at 130.165 km/h.
From Wikipedia’s article on Valtra, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5