UPM Biochemicals has partnered with DB Cargo to make the wood deliveries to its biorefinery in Leuna, Germany, by rail, enabling sustainable supply chains. With the first deliveries complete, the pair has set up and tested a direct rail link to the Leuna operations’ wood yard.

UPM has partnered with DB Cargo to transport wood sustainably while also improving local supply chains. This partnership will increase the security of the supply of critical raw materials. DB Cargo has been working with UPM for several years in handling its paper and pulp freight.

“We are excited to welcome the first rail-based wood transports at our newly established wood yard in Leuna,” said Andreas Meggendorfer, Director Supply Chain & Sourcing at UPM Biochemicals. “We will offer fully sustainable renewable chemicals with a significantly better CO2 footprint compared to fossil alternatives. It is paramount that we work on strategies to continuously optimize the environmental performance of our products further. Using rail as a transport mode does exactly that. And by partnering with DB Cargo, we can now rely on a well-known and capable rail logistics partner and have built a resilient and sustainable wood logistics setup for our biorefinery in Leuna.”

“UPM and DB Cargo have been linked by a successful partnership for rail-based inbound logistics of timber for many years. We are therefore very pleased to now be an important supply chain partner for UPM at the new biorefinery in Leuna”, said Thorsten Wartenpfuhl, SVP Sales Consumer Goods, Pulp & Paper, Timber at DB Cargo.

As part of the commissioning and start-up work for the biorefinery, wood handling and processing activities have begun. The first wood chips made of wood from sustainably managed regional forests have been produced, confirming overall progress made on-site.

UPM, a leading renewable materials company, is investing €1.18 billion to construct the world’s first industrial-scale biorefinery in Leuna. The biorefinery will convert sustainably sourced, certified hardwood into next-generation biochemicals, marking a significant shift towards renewable materials in a wide range of industries. This project is part of UPM Biorefining’s broader growth plan, which seeks to scale refineries to produce a variety of renewable fuels and chemicals using sustainable biomass.

This article was originally published on our sister publication ProjectCargoJournal.com