NCT Durban Wood Chips (DWC) Ltd has exported its first load of wood chips to Japan.
The 30,000-tonne shipment, bound for Hokuetsu Paper Mills, was loaded onto the Hokuetsu Ace at the beginning of February. A second vessel is due at DWC’s plant in early March to take a further shipment to Japan.
A Japanese delegation, including Hokuetsu’s president, flew to Durban to witness the first ship loading and finalise contractual agreements, which will see 300,000 tonnes of wood chips exported to the company every year.
DWC, the first wood chip export plant in Durban and only the fourth in South Africa, began chipping last August and has a planned annual capacity of 360,000 air dry tonnes of eucalyptus chips.
