Event Coverage supporting Export Goals Eastern Canada wood pellet produces are encouraged by logistics possibilities. By Carroll McCormick his July, Eastern Canadian wood pellet producers flocked to the first ever workshop organized to discuss the export logistics challenges they face. They learned that co-operat-ing to provide high-volume shipments is critical for greasing the supply chain. Players such as CN, Canfornav and ports from Montreal to Halifax, told the participants they want their business. Nearly 100 participants at-tended the Eastern Canadian Pellet Logistics Workshop, organized by the Quebec Wood Export Bureau (QWEB) and the Wood Pellet Association of Can-ada (WPAC). The topic was how to make the logistics of transporting wood pel-lets, particularly to the European Union market, more attractive to shippers. Participants first got a reminder of how things are done in Western Canada. Gordon Murray, executive di-T rector, WPAC, referred to a spirit of co-operation among western producers. The leadership of the big producers, comingling and economies of scale help account for 1.6 million tonnes of wood pellets being shipped out of Port Metro Vancouver in 2012. Participants learned that they too could become big exporters if they or-ganize to reduce the cost of transporta-tion by providing attractive volumes to shippers, and by offering high-volume, long-term contracts to European Union customers. Jean-François Arsenault, principal, CPCS, presented findings from a study that the QWEB and WPAC commis-sioned. CPCS was tasked with analyz-ing the transport chain for exporting wood pellets from Eastern Canada, and identifying barriers to implementing an efficient, optimized supply chain. Air System Experts Biomass N Boardplants Power generation N Pulp & Paper Sawmills N Materials handling N Mining Allied brings 35+ years experience in industrial air systems. Allied’s combination of design, supply, installation & maintenance services provides lower project cost, on-time completion, smoother start-up and less downtime – adding value and safety to your operation. In brief, the study concluded that the market is there for Eastern Canadian producers to export nearly all of their current annual production. The chal-lenge, however, is to determine how to increase volumes and thereby decrease freight rates. The European Union market con-sumed 19 million tonnes of wood pel-lets in 2012, and has a forecasted an-nual growth of 10 per cent. “There are huge opportunities, for example, 15-20 per cent annual growth in Italy,” Mur-ray noted. Matthew Griffin, commercial man-ager, Drax, which owns and operates a 4,000-megawatt power station in North Yorkshire, England, stated, “We believe that Eastern Canada has the potential to be as big as Western Canada, but what has been holding us back is a frag-mented supply, which raises our costs.” The CPCS study calculated that moving wood pellets by rail is almost always less expensive than by truck. That said, Arsenault pointed out that the majority of producers have no ac-cess to rail spurs and they would likely have to buy or lease rail cars. Arsenault touched on other issues too, such as the Safety Quality Value Surrey,BC N Vernon,BC N WilliamsLake,BC N Edmonton,Alberta N Prince Albert, Sask www.alliedblower.com N Phone: 800-576-3611 16 Canadian BIOMASS JULY/AUGUST 2013
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