After an unexpectedly long cold spell in the first few months of the year, winter stocks of waste wood in Germany have, with a few exceptions, been emptied, sometimes much more quickly than originally planned. While arisings have now increased due to the time of year, they are still generally too low to allow for inventory building.
There is broad agreement that transport costs have soared as a result of the steep rise in diesel prices. Waste wood processors and biomass power plant operators put this effect at around 6 to 10 per cent, depending on the transport distance.
Electricity prices have risen in Germany in recent months as a result of the war in Iran and have broadly stabilised at about the level of the feed-in tariff set under Germany’s Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG). As a result, waste wood prices are more or less in line with electricity revenues, depending on the business model and plant depreciation, power plant operators told EUWID.
The clear majority of market players expect stable conditions over the coming months, not least because planned plant stoppages are likely to result in a calmer market.
Read the full quarterly market report on waste wood in Germany and access price charts broken down by region and grade here:
