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LVM Customers Start Receiving Additional Deliveries of Energy Wood Chips

With the beginning of autumn, Latvian heat supply companies start receiving additional deliveries of energy wood chips, which are delivered by JSC “Latvia's State Forests” (LVM) as part of the signed contracts. In 2022/2023, LVM plans to achieve the historically highest production and sale volumes of energy wood chips, offering on the market around 800 thousand bulk cubic metres (around 650000 MWh) of a product suitable for energy extraction.

“Energy wood in logging, like wood chips, bark or shavings in the wood industry, is a by-product of production. The forest is tended and grown to obtain as much of the most valuable wood – saw logs – as possible; saw logs are processed for the production of boards. No one develops a forest to obtain logging residues such as branches, tops, small wood.  However, in the current market situation, when the demand for wood chips has grown rapidly, it is important to use every opportunity to maximize the volumes of energy wood harvesting. LVM produces energy wood chips from tree biomass – both from felling residues, such as branches, tops, trimmings, small trees, needles, and from the growth and small wood that remains in the forest after harvesting roadside and ditch growth and caring for young trees. Energy wood must dry naturally for 3 to 6 months after preparation in order to reach the optimum energy value at the time of burning and to be suitable for immediate use in the production of heat,” says Ojārs Keziks, Manager of LVM Energy Wood Products.

Currently, LVM supplies all the energy chips it produces only to local wood processing and energy production companies.

Responding to the growing demand for wood resources used for heat energy production, LVM started selling additional volume of energetic wood chips in June of this year, offering to purchase 150 thousand cubic metres of energy wood chips in the volume of 130 000 MWh throughout the territory of Latvia.

According to the data of the Central Statistical Bureau, Latvia consumed 8.9 million cubic metres of wood chips in 2021, which is 13 % more than a year earlier, while 2.3 million cubic metres were exported, which is a similar volume as in 2020