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Wood pellets (for fuel) Click
here
for charts illustrating each EU member state's monthly imports and
exports of wood pellets.
UK imports of pellets from USA, weight by port
and unit import value
UK imports of pellets, fuel wood, chips and
residues (to end of June 2023)
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![]() EU-27 and UK - pellet imports Source: based on Eurostat and Drax plc publications. Assumes 7.1 million tonnes burned by Drax during 2020. One power station, Drax, accounted for almost all the growth in EU imports during recent years. That growth has halted since 1) Drax's fourth and final unit was converted to burn biomass and 2) the UK government made the burning of wood pellets for power ineligible for subsidy. The subsequent increase is attributable mainly to Lynemouth power station. ![]() EU-27 pellet production Source: based on FAOSTAT Taken together, the two charts above tend to confirm that excluding Drax and Lynemounth, a large majority (roughly 80%) of pellets burned in the EU are produced in the EU. The chart above ilustrates that production in the EU has peaked (implying an insufficiency of viable woodland). ![]() EU-27 - pellet consumption Source: based on FAOSTAT and Eurostat Strong increase in use of pellets within most EU member states - primarily for heat. ![]() EU-27 imports of pellets (and other products) from Russia (to 31 10 2022) Source: Eurostat (code 44013100 and 44013020) The decline in EU-27 imports from Russia is tending to be met from USA and Canada. ![]() EU-27 imports of pellets (and other products) from Belarus (to 30 09 2022) Source: Eurostat (code 44013100 and 44013020) |
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Exports to the Netherlands and the
UK past their peak? Japan now on its own?
The steep decline in exports from BC to UK reflects greater profit available to Drax under its contracts with markets in Japan, than supplying Drax power station from BC. This suggests that Drax has a substantial competitive advantage over Enviva in supplying those markets. Of the pellets which Drax supplied from Canada to countries other than the UK during 2022 was almost 1.2 million tonnes [p41]. Increasing costs due to wildfire (in part a consequence of the unsustainability of supposedly sustainable forest management practices) threaten long-trerm exports frpm British Columbia.
Canada's exports of sawnwood
of coniferous species
(to 31 03 2023) This chart illustrates the decline in availability of sawmilling residues - supposedly the predominate raw material in the pellets which Drax exports from British Columbia. The pellet industry helps sustain the commercial viability of sawmilling industries (implicitly tending to compound forest-degradation, carbon emissions and loss of sequestration).
![]() Drax's share of UK imports Source: based on Eurostat Drax Annual Report 2015 Drax biomass supply report UNECE
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Trade in pellets from the Baltic States to the UK
Suggested
reading:
"Forest
Bionergy for Europe - What science can tell us" EFI (2014)
"Review
of literature on biogenic carbon and life cycle assessment of forest
bioenergy" Forest research (05 2014)
"Carbon
Emissions and Climate Change Disclosure by the Wood Pellet Industry –
A Report to the SEC on Enviva Partners LP" Partnership for Policy
Integrity and Dogwood Alliance (03 2016)
"Woody
Biomass for Power and Heat: Impacts on the Global Climate" D Brack
for Chatham House (02 2017) |
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Copyright
globaltimber.org.uk
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