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LVM Announces a Tender for Mechanized Energy Wood Processing

JSC “Latvia's State Forests” (LVM) announces a tender “Provision of Mechanized Energy Wood and Timber Production Services from 2019 to 2023 by Concluding a Framework Agreement”. The production of energy wood and timber will be done by removing overgrowth from drainage ditch routes, road tracks, agricultural land, removing undergrowth before renewal felling and by performing thinning works. This work will be carried out using excavators and forwarders equipped with a cutting head.

Work for owners of excavators, forwarders

“Land is Latvia's greatest wealth, so it must be used skilfully. LVM often manages land that is covered by underproductive shrubs and scrubs. Therefore, the company, taking care of the quality and high productivity of future forest stands, removes such type of vegetation utilizing it efficiently as a renewable resource. A similar situation is with ditch and road tracks where overgrowth is removed as part of daily maintenance works. Often the overgrowth has reached the dimensions from which it is possible to obtain energy woodchips that are in demand in the market as green energy,” says Jānis Pētersons, LVM Chip Production Manager.

Until now, harvesters with different types of work heads were employed in the preparation of energy wood, as the work is also carried out in thinning areas where appropriate forest machinery and qualifications are required. Agricultural lands or ditch tracks do not require specialized forestry machinery or forest machine operator qualifications, so this open tender seeks entrepreneurs who are ready to do the work with machinery that has not been used to date in forestry. Excavators and forwarders equipped with a cutting head can be used to reduce the costs of preparing energy wood. The costs of purchasing and maintaining these machines are lower than those of harvesters.

“When modifying a forwarder, the functions of the machine are controlled by the bucket opening/closing mechanism. As the work progresses, a bundle is formed in the cutting head collector, which is then placed in the forwarder cargo compartment for transportation to an energy wood yard for subsequent chipping. It is important for LVM to provide quality wood that meets the quality requirements and prevents various impurities from entering the woodchips. For example, a cutting head with a fixed knife has proven in practice to produce dirtier energy wood. The moving head with moving knives, on the other hand, works with minor soil impurities,” Jānis Pētersons tells about the conversion of forest machines.

The tender is open to farmers and builders who own excavators that can be equipped with heads fitted with cutting heads, as well as entrepreneurs who are already LVM partners in soil preparation, forest infrastructure works and logging.

Proposals should be submitted electronically in the EIS e-tenders subsystem by 23 September 2019; 14.00.

MORE ABOUT THE SERVICE PROCUREMENT TENDER

Contact person: Jānis Pētersons, LVM Chip Production Manager