After the reversal that started at the beginning of the year, prices for waste wood have continued to fall in Germany over the past three months. All industry players who spoke with EUWID agree the downward slide is mainly due to the steep drop in electricity prices, which have at times dipped well below €100 per MWh. Against this backdrop, and to some degree depending on the strategy adopted by a given supplier, prices were being gradually lowered in most cases, and occasionally being cut significantly in a single step. Peak prices in particular have been subject to considerable reductions, the market survey found.
One reason for the overall trend are the higher than anticipated stock levels at biomass power plants. Some facilities have not used up as much of their winter stock as they had planned, and therefore have sufficient, good, or even "very reassuring” supply levels. In some cases, the winter stock had not even been touched. Driven by panic in some cases, plant operators had built up significantly larger stocks last autumn than in previous years and these had not shrunk as much as expected due to the mild weather. "There was a lot of psychology involved,” commented one power plant operator. In some cases, the stock build-up was "speculation”, EUWID was told.
Read the complete quarterly report on the waste wood market in Germany and access price tables and graphing tools here:
