World’s largest pellet plant exports first shipment

Mar. 22, 2011, Rotterdam, The Netherlands –
Russian pulp and paper company Vyborgskaya Cellulose has exported its first
shipment of wood pellets from its 900,000 tonne/year production plant in the
western Russian city of Vyborg. Global forestry marketing firm Ekman, which is
the exclusive sales agent for the plant, told Argus that a 4,000-tonne cargo
left the port of Vyborg to be discharged at Helsingborg for buyer Oresund
Kraft, a Swedish utility.

The new production facility, which is near
the border with Finland, represents a substantial increase in global pellet
production and will have an immediate effect on the market, with a steady flow
of shipments scheduled to depart.

“We will follow this (shipment) with a lot
more in quick succession,” Arnold Dale, Ekman vice-president of bioenergy, told
Argus. “We will have at least one shipment departing every week from Vyborg,
with another 4,000-tonne shipment next week and 6,000 tonnes the week after.”

The plant experienced a few minor problems
with debarking and chipping during its start-up. Despite ice problems in the
Baltic region adding to concerns, the firm kept delays to the plant's start-up
to less than a month.

The new Vyborg plant will increase Russian
pellet capacity to 3.1 million tonnes in 2011 from 840,000 tonnes in 2009.