Norden has secured a contract of affreightment (CoA) to ship wood pellets across the Atlantic in an expansion of its relationship with Enviva.

The Danish shipowner said it will transport between 1.3-1.5m tons of wood pellets from the US to Europe over a six-year period.

The CoA with the world’s largest wood pellet producer will run from 2021 to 2026. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The deal is the latest in a long-term collaboration between Norden and Enviva, which has its roots back in 2012.

“We are delighted to further cement our good relationship and proud to be entrusted to once again deliver even more Enviva products to their customers across the Atlantic,” says Norden chief executive Jan Rindbo.

With the new contract, Norden now holds a number of long-running contracts with Enviva for shipping wood pellets across the Atlantic, all of which are carried on supramaxes.

Rindbo adds, “Our collaboration with Enviva has enabled us to play a leading role in the fast-growing market for sustainable wood bioenergy, as an increasing number of electric power generating plants convert from coal to wood pellets in order to reduce their lifetime carbon emissions.”

Separately, Norden said it had also been awarded a three-year contract to transport coal from Indonesia to Hong Kong.

The CoA, which runs from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2022, will involve around 1.3mt of coal per year on panamax vessels, an estimated 17-20 cargoes annually.

The unnamed power firm has been described as a “good supporter” to Norden over the years on both spot and long-running CoAs.

“This is an attractive CoA for us as it increases our existing panamax south east Asia presence,” said Rindbo.