Experts predict further growth of the European market of solid biofuel

By 2020, the amount of consumption of wood pellets and briquettes may grow one and a half times compared to current indices.

European consumers use solid biofuel in the industrial production of electricity and heat, as well as for heating private households. The amount of consumption is constantly growing, and the analysts estimate the market could reach 24 million tons by 2015, and 35 million tons by 2020.

The reason for this growth is the trend towards the conventional fuel types substitution with renewable sources of energy and the desire to diversify energy supplies, thereby to save their own market from the economic and political factors of instability.

The main type of biofuel, popular in the European market, is solid biofuel. At the same time, 50% of the total amount of wood pellets and briquettes are consumed in the private sector. This choice is justified by both its price and quality characteristics. In addition, the governments of the Member States of the European Union have adopted a program to subsidize private households changing from coal and natural gas to wood biofuel.

According to Eurostat data, 28 countries-members of the European Union, consume over 80% of world imports of wood biofuel, the largest consumers of which are Germany, Italy, the UK and Denmark.

At the same time, European manufacturers of wood biofuel cannot fully meet the growing demand due to high production costs and severe shortage of raw materials. In addition, German and Swedish manufacturers, occupying a leading position in the market, announced the reduction of overall production. This led to a decrease of inner trade of wood biofuel and increase in imports, particularly from such countries as Canada, the USA, Russia and Ukraine, which are the main exporters of wood pellets and briquettes.

It is worth noting that the main buyers of Ukrainian wood pellets are Poland, Germany, Slovakia and the Czech Republic; in recent years, market operators say there is an increased demand on the part of the Italian and Baltic business representatives, and this is proved by the represented statistics in the database of importers of Ukrainian wood briquettes, and published by Ukrainian Biofuel Portal pellets-wood.com .

We summarize, that the European traders will undoubtedly increase the amounts of consumption in the very near future. In such a case, Ukrainian manufacturers of wood briquettes should take into account that the main contributing factors of the exporters’ access to the Ukrainian market are the rates for the transportation, the need for certification and production prime costs.