After nearly a year-long pause AS Baltic Coal Terminal (BCT) operating from the Sea Port of Ventspils received a shipment of 81 000 tonnes of coal from Kazakhstan intended for European consumers. The shipment arrived on board the shit Navios Sphera.
BCT plans to continue handling coal freights intended for Europe.
Considering the decline of renewable energy resources, demand for fossil fuels has increased considerably in Europe. Because the price of gas has increased rapidly lately, many companies in Europe have switched to using coal. In the EU coal is mainly used for energy production, chemical industry and metallurgy. And demand for the goods produced by these sectors has increased considerably in recent time. Increased demand for energy resources in Europe has influenced the desire of European market players to restore previous contractual relations and search for new sources of coal.
BCT board member Ilze Bērziņa told that the company is actively working on restoring the flow of coal to the terminals. «Considering that the contract for next year is still in the works, we do not know the exact volume of upcoming coal freights. Nevertheless, BCT is doing all it can to ensure all operations are performed in accordance with the terminal’s profile,» said Ilze Bērziņa, adding that after a short pause the company was able to restore and provide high quality services in coal handling in a very short period of time.
Since the very opening the terminal has used closed-type technologies to reduce environmental pollution as much as possible. BCT environmental policy is based on environmental management system that was developed based on ISO 14001 standards.
Even under increased demand BCT stresses the importance of ecology. The company does all it can to reduce the pollution from coal freights. BCT ensures a full closed handling cycle and is one of the most modern coal terminals in Europe and the most environmentally friendly coal terminal in the Baltic Sea region.