Shipping Capacity Update

RNS Number : 6999U

Active Energy Group PLC

05 December 2013

 



Active Energy Group Plc

("Active Energy" or the "Company")

Three major milestones: record production and shipping volumes, simultaneously loading and despatching three vessels, bulk woodchip deliveries to clients in Italy and Turkey

Active Energy, the pan-European supplier of high-quality woodchip and associated timber products for green energy Biomass power generation and MDF manufacturing, is pleased to announce that in the last week of November 2013 it achieved three major milestones, including processing and shipping approximately 20,000 metric tonnes of woodchip from its Ukrainian Black Sea port facilities.

This significant increase in Active Energy's manufacturing and shipping capacity follows its successful fund raise in June 2013, and its on-going investment in expanding its processing, logistics and transport operations to meet the growing demand for its products.

For the first time, over the course of five days it simultaneously loaded and despatched three bulk cargo vessels, one from each of its two port-side facilities in Mykolaiv, and another from its new facility at Yuznhy port in Odessa.  It had previously operated from a single facility in Mykolaiv, sequentially loading and despatching individual shipments.

Of the three shipments, one went to a Biomass-powered electricity generation plant in Southern Italy, and two were despatched to Turkey, including a test delivery to a new client with considerable future potential.  Both the latter are destined for MDF production - an industry in which Active Energy has already established a strong reputation for the quality and freshness of its woodchip products and the speed of its deliveries when compared to traditional Canadian, US and Latin American supply sources.

The uplift in capacity demonstrates that the Company is well placed to achieve its target of processing and shipping substantial volumes of high-quality woodchip across the Black Sea, utilising its newly expanded sourcing, production, logistics and transport infrastructure.

Commenting on the announcement, Richard Spinks, CEO of Active Energy Group, said: "I am extremely proud of our team for their achievements over the past few months.  These three major milestones in Active Energy's development - record production and shipping volumes, simultaneously loading three bulk cargo vessels, and successfully despatching them across the Black Sea to new and existing clients in Turkey and even further to Italy - prove that our efforts in developing a fully-integrated logistics chain are already producing tangible results."

"We are in advanced negotiations with several major European woodchip buyers, who currently source product from suppliers located over 10,000kms away, and can now demonstrate our ability to reliably deliver large volumes of high-quality woodchip in a tenth of the time, with significantly lower cash-flow exposure, than their existing supply sources."

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Enquiries:

Active Energy Group plc.

Richard Spinks, Chief Executive Officer                                                Tel: [phone]

Sanlam Securities UK (Nominated Adviser and Broker)

Simon Clements                                                                                              Tel: [phone]

Novella Communications

Tim Robertson / Ben Heath                                                                          Tel: [phone]

About Active Energy Group:

•    Company website: www.active-energy.com

•    Active Energy Group plc, a London Stock Exchange-listed company (AIM: AEG), is a

pan-European supplier of high quality woodchip and associated timber products for green energy Biomass power generation and MDF manufacturing.

•    The company is led by a highly experienced and dedicated management team with a proven track record of working in the regions in which its operations are based.

•    In June 2013, Active Energy Group acquired its major trading partner and raised in excess of £3m to facilitate future growth and expansion of its production and shipping facilities.

•    Ukraine, with its large forestry reserves and comprehensive road, rail and sea transport links, is an ideal location from which to source raw timber and supply European Biomass energy producers and MDF manufacturers.

•    European Biomass Market:

o    EU directives are greatly accelerating demand for Biomass fuel - the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) estimates that Biomass-based energy production will grow from 43TWh (Terawatt Hours) in 2005 to 250TWh in 2020.

o    Key NGO bodies such as the European Biomass Association and Eurelectric, the European Union of the Electricity Industry, advocate establishing harmonised, binding sustainability criteria for solid Biomass.

o    Bioenergy is expected to account for over 50% of EU renewable energy, according to a European Commission directive on National Renewable Energy Action Plans.

 

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