KALMAR Lifts For Sale

About Kalmar

Kalmar’s history as a lift manufacturer began in the 1940s in Tampere, Finland, when Kalmar’s future corporate stablemate, Valmet, manufactured its first straddle carrier, followed by a lift truck in 1948. Meanwhile, Swedish Kalmar forerunner Lidhults Mekaniska Verkstad (LMV) built its first forklift truck in 1949. In 1973, LMV and Swedish forklift maker Ljungbytruck merged to form Kalmar LMV, and the first Kalmar lift truck soon followed. In 1975, meanwhile, a Valmet facility in Tampere, Finland, began to make its first container straddle carrier. A decade later in 1985, Kalmar released its first reach stacker, the ContChamp. The company also launched the giant, record-setting, 90-2400 99-ton (90-metric-ton) forklift in 1991.

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Kalmar DCG620-15LB Super-Heavy Forklift

The 1990s & Beyond

Kalmar spent the subsequent years advancing the automation of cargo and container handling at port terminals, introducing an automated container straddle carrier in the 1990s. In the last few years of the decade, Kalmar was acquired in steps by Partek Corporation of Finland, which owned Sisu, a company in possession of Valmet and Kalmar Ottawa. In 2001, Kalmar acquired Nelcon, a straddle carrier and ship-to-shore container crane maker in the Netherlands, along with maintenance service firm Groot-Hensen. In 2005, however, Cargotec became Kalmar’s new parent company, also acquiring Hiab and MacGregor.

In 2008, Kalmar launched several important products, including an electric forklift truck, a hybrid-powered straddle carrier, and the AutoShuttle. The latter provided automated container ship-to-shore transport and stacking cranes. In 2011, Kalmar acquired Navis, a terminal operating systems provider in the United States. The following year, Kalmar opened a technology and competence center in Tampere, and acquired AutoStrad straddle carrier automation technology from Asciano. In 2013, Kalmar debuted its Gloria reach stacker family, of which the top-end Super Gloria model went on to lift a record 113.5-ton (103-metric ton) load the following year. In 2015, Kalmar and Navis teamed up to release the integrated automation solution Kalmar OneTerminal. Kalmar sold off its rough-terrain handling business in 2018.

Kalmar Now

Kalmar has more than 5,700 employees in 30 countries and is focused on port automation, integration of terminal processes, and energy-efficient cargo handling. The company estimates that a Kalmar product handles one in four shipping container moves worldwide. The company has manufactured pneumatic tire and cushion tire forklifts, electric forklifts, reach stackers, masted empty and loaded container handlers, reach stacker container handlers, straddle carriers, shuttle carriers, side loaders and bi-directionals, terminal tractors (under the Kalmar Ottawa banner), and various cranes. Kalmar also sells FastCharge AGV automated guided vehicles and the container handling Automated Stacking Crane (ASC).

Find Kalmar Lift Equipment

If you’re in the market for new and used Kalmar lift equipment for sale, make LiftsToday.com a regular destination. Some of the more plentiful Kalmar models for sale on the site include DCE160 and DCG160 pneumatic tire forklifts and DRF450 reach stacker container handlers.