The Eastport Port Authority has reached a tentative agreement with Timber Biofuel Venture for the company to ship wood chips through the Port of Eastport. The Maine-based company, which is a new joint venture, could begin stockpiling chips as early as next month, although a definite date has not been set.
     Port Director Chris Gardner and the company have reached negotiated terms for a contract, which now will be reviewed for approval by the port authority board at a meeting tentatively scheduled for March 20. Gardner expects the contract will be approved.
     If the agreement is ratified, the start date for trucking chips to the Estes Head port terminal could be as early as April 1. Gardner notes that it would take at least eight weeks to truck in enough chips to make the first shipment. The port authority will find out from the company when it plans to load its first shipment so that the initial run of the new bulk conveyor system can be made before then.
     The agreement will not be based on volume of chips shipped, but rather the port authority will lease the bulk storage yard, including the scales and truck dumper, for a set price and also be compensated for the tonnage that is shipped. The conveyor system itself will be run by Federal Marine Terminals, the port terminal operator.
     The current tentative agreement does not include any commitment for Timber Biofuel to ship a certain annual tonnage. The length of the contract term will be released once the board ratifies the agreement.
     "We are very excited and very optimistic that this will all time up very well, and it's going to be great to see this new investment put to work," says Gardner of the $9 million bulk conveyor system.
     Larry Carrier, a partner in Timber Biofuel Venture, says the partners in the company have been in the wood products industry for several generations. Because some details are still unknown and for reasons of confidentiality, he's not able to say the amount that the company is planning to ship through the port. However, he notes that "a couple hundred thousand" tons a year is possible, with some customers looking for 70,000 tons. The company is working with nine potential customers in the European markets, which would use the wood chips for biomass fuel. He's also not sure at this point how many ships would be calling at the port, since it also depends on the volume each might carry.
     All of the wood that will be shipped is poor quality forest residue, and Carrier stresses that the company will not be competing with the wood pulp industry in Maine for sources of wood.
     "I think the port authority folks and the board, they're great people, and this is a great opportunity at hand. We will all learn together," he says, noting that the European market, the biomass industry and the port infrastructure are all new.
     Unlike the previous understanding with Great Northern Timber for the shipping of wood chips, the port authority has now reached an actual contract agreement with Timber Biofuel, Gardner points out. With Great Northern Timber, which is based in Halifax, the port authority board only had agreed to enter into negotiations for a contract. Although the board had voted in November to proceed with contract negotiations with Great Northern, the board ended up having concerns about pricing, the annual tonnage, the start date and the length of the contract term, and Great Northern had concerns about the wood market. In December the port authority board decided to look again at dealing with Timber Biofuel.