Estonia-headed wood pellet producer AS Graanul Invest has announced that a subsidiary of the company has acquired a third bulk carrier to transport wood pellets. With its smaller size, the “MS Launkalne” is the best vessel for servicing smaller and shallow ports, operating mainly between Pärnu, Estonia, and Denmark.
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Built by Ferus Smit Shipyard in the Netherlands in 2010, “MS Launkalne” is named after the third Graanul Invest Group pellet production facility in Launkalne, Latvia.
With its smaller size, the “MS Launkalne” is the best vessel for servicing smaller and shallow ports, operating mainly between Pärnu, Estonia, and Denmark.
The 133 m new bulk carrier was registered to Graanul Invest shipping company on January 19, 2022, and can carry up to 8 100 tonnes of wood pellets.
Acquiring the third bulk carrier is an important step for servicing our customers along the Baltic coasts. The ship’s draft and 7 500-8 100 tonne capacity is optimal for operating between the rather shallow Copenhagen area ports and the river port in Pärnu, Estonia, commented Olari Tiide, Logistics Manager of Graanul Invest.
The wood pellet shipments will be sent mainly from Pärnu, Estonia; Riga, Latvia and Bekkeri port in Tallinn, Estonia.
The customers are located in Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, and Sweden – all around the Baltic Sea coastline.
Maiden voyage to Copenhagen
“MS Launkalne” is entered into the Cyprus Registry of Ships and is manned by Marlow Navigation.
As with “Imavere” and “Alytus”, the technical operator is Germany-based Grona Shipmanagement GmbH & Co. KG, and the daily operations are managed by the Graanul Invest Logistics team.
After approximately 20 hours of loading in Pärnu, Estonia, the first shipment of sustainable wood pellets headed towards Copenhagen, Denmark for an Ørsted combined heat and power (CHP) plant.
The first impressions of the ship are excellent. The maneuverability and ease of operating in the rather narrow and ice-covered Pärnu river port were fast and fluent on our maiden journey commented Captain Alexander Telnov.
All wood pellets produced in the Baltics are shipped inside the Sulphur Emission Control Area (SECA) zone with minimized sulphur oxides (SOx), and nitrous oxides (NOx) emissions, making the shipping environmental footprint the best in the world.
Sustainability and reducing the ecological footprint of our products have always been a priority of Graanul Invest. All our customers want the product’s carbon footprint to be as small as possible at the expense of the energy used in transport and production, and the demand for environmentally friendly biofuels is growing, ended Olari Tiide.
