Sea Port of Saint-Petersburg JSC has shipped the largest batch of wood pellets in its history, 32,800 tonnes of biofuel bound for a foreign partner. Previously, average shiploads were ranging between 3,000 and 10,000 tonnes of pellets.
SP SPb is the largest operator handling fuel pellets in the North-West of Russia. Over a decade, the company has boosted this cargo handling 7 times with 444,000 tonnes handled in 2019.
This cargo flow was mainly driven by modernization of the port infrastructure throughout several years. SP SPb put into operation new specialized covered warehouses that let suppliers enlarge their export batches. The company offers over 22,500 square meters of storage facilities for biofuel.
To enhance its handling performance, SP SPb has optimized its port logistics. With its new warehousing schemes, upgraded production tools and revised routes of handling equipment the company managed to reduce the time needed for handling of pellets. The rate of loading/unloading works is crucial as they are weather-dependent and can be conducted only in dry weather.
The record large batch of 30 thousand pellets was loaded onto the CIELO DI MONACO bound for the Netherlands. It is one of the key destinations of pellets along with the Great Britain, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland and Sweden.
“The core principles of Sea Port of Saint-Petersburg are the focus on customers and constant development, — said Andrey Zubarev, Managing Director of SP SPb. — Today, we are developing a project on building up the port’s annual capacity from 450,000 to 1 million tonnes of wood pellets.”
“Despite challenging meteorological conditions, the stevedore succeeded in maintaining the loading rates having handled 4,200 tonnes of cargo in one of the days, which is also a kind of a record for pellets, — comments Irina Davidyan, General Director of Universal Forwarder LLC. — This project of Sea Port of Saint-Petersburg is yet another demonstration of its high professionalism and readiness to meet the clients’ interests.”
Sea Port of Saint-Petersburg JSC is the largest operator rendering services on handling of all types of dry cargoes at Big Port St. Petersburg. It operates modern multipurpose specialized terminals for handling of general and bulk cargoes and specialized terminals for ro-ro cargoes and containers.
Universal Forwarder LLC is a major logistic operator offering comprehensive and efficient solutions to its clients. In 2019, the company forwarded 16.9 million tonnes. Headquartered in Moscow the company has its regional offices operating in Saint-Petersburg, Tuapse, Taganrog, Ust-Luga. The company’s clients are the leading metallurgical, mining, grain, chemical and machine-building enterprises of Russia.
Pellets (wood fuel pellets) are an environmentally friendly biofuel. The demand for wood pellets is on the rise in Western Europe and Asia. Biofuel is among renewable energy sources. Direct emissions of CO2 when using biofuel are 79-85% lower than those in case of using coal while pellets are comparable with coal in terms of energy characteristics.