Pinnacle Pellet signs nine year transportation contract with Danish shipping firm

Westview Terminals will see a new
shipping line calling in the new year
with a nine year contract with the Danish
Shipping Line Norden now in place
(photo from Norden information release)

Residents on the west side of the city should be seeing more vessels calling on the Westview Pellet Terminal in the years to come, that as Pinnacle Pellet and the Danish shipping line Dampskibsselskabet NORDEN A/S enter into a long term transportation contract.

In a media release from last week the Danish transportation company has noted that the contract which will be for nine years will see some 3.5 million tons of wood pellets shipped from Pinnacle's two terminals in Vancouver and Prince Rupert.

It's estimated that there will be eight trips per year as part of the shipping agreement, though no breakdown as to how many trips each terminal will see was noted as part of the information notes of Friday.

The Danish firm will make use of its fleet of surpamax vessels to deliver the pellets to European power plants which are switching over to biomass as an alternative to coal. It's anticipated that European demand for pellet product could double over the next five years, increasing significantly from the 2015 levels which saw 13 million used for power generation needs.

It's that expansion of the market that has Norden hailing the new relationship between itself and Pinnacle as one which they hope will be long and mutually beneficial and which could make for a impressive bit of momentum for the Prince Rupert operations on the North Coast.

Pinnacle Pellet's Senior Vice President, Vaughn Bassett noted the reputation and ability of the Danish company to deliver their product as key to the recent agreement.

”We picked NORDEN for a couple of reasons. We needed a partner with their own fleet to ensure they could ride out whatever cycles we will meet in the almost 10-year the contract covers. That partner also needed to have a very good reputation in the shipping industry and to be flexible and customer focused enough to satisfy both ourselves and the receiver consistently over the long term. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship,”

You can review the information release here.

In addition to the background on the new shipping contract, a photo of the Westview terminal is featured as part of the information release, raising the profile of the Prince Rupert operations around the world.

More notes on the Pinnacle operations on the North Coast can be found here.