Fuel pellets prices in Germany

Fuel pellets analytics ...

Increase in fuel pellets production

Main pellet market: domestic heating

Fuel pellet prices in Germany increased strongly starting from July 2006 until January 2007. The reason for this was selling several hundred thousand pellet stoves for residential heating. It is noteworthy that the prices in Germany and Austria were strongly influenced by the peak in demand in Italy during the winter of 2006 - 2007.

During the period 2005 and 2007 the general increase in fuel pellets production in Germany is evaluated about 400 percent. There are 40 fuel pellets producers in Germany with the production capacity of 1,800,000 tons with expected growth to 2,300,000 tons in 2008. There are 85,000 heating units that use fuel pellets but no large solid biofuel power plants and this hampers the market development.

In the past three years, the number of fuel pellets production plants has been significantly extended: 290,000 tons of fuel pellets were produced in 28 pellets plants in 2005, and just one year later, a further 32 companies in 35 locations had been built. In 2007, Germany's pellets production was expected to first exceed the one-million ton record. Currently there are 44 pellets plants producing around 1.3 million tons of fuel pellets for the year.

German fuel pellet market has so far expanded primarily in the small-scale sector. With the growing fuel pellet market, the interest in fuel pellet production has increased rapidly in the last few years. At present there are 14 fuel pellet production plants in operation and 7 more are planned. By the end of 2003, pellet production will amount to 90,000 tonnes and the maximum production capacity could even reach 140,000 tonnes.

Read more about: Fuel pellet market in Germany 2008