From the Director’s Desk:
April Pellet Industry Data Released
April 2026 (5-year average) -in tons
East
Sales – 37,740 (58,607)
Production – 78,650 (83,187)
Inventory – 105,701 (164,866)
West
Sales – 9,268 (14,646)
Production – 27,509 (32,763)
Inventory – 94,595 (74,021)
South
Sales – 4,817 (10,497)
Production – 13,295 (13,921)
Inventory – 16,942 (39,512)
All U.S.
Sales – 51,825 (83,540)
Production – 119,454 (131,039)
Inventory – 217,238 (278,399)
The EIA released its April 2026 data on Wednesday and yielded few surprises. April represents the low ebb of wood pellet sales, second only to March in terms of the lowest monthly sales from a 5-year average perspective. That said, for 2025 and 2026, April posted a lower sales figure than March.
The data point worth looking at is production numbers, as April is a key inventory-building month as producers look to lay in inventory for the season. Production in the East is off the 5-year average, and this will be a number to continue to watch as we move through late spring and early summer months. We know that the East emerged from the 2025-26 heating season with the lowest inventory position since 2019, so producers are looking to build as much inventory as possible.
Two thoughts come to mind when considering the shortfall in production as compared to the five-year average. First, producers often schedule planned maintenance outages during the month of April, taking advantage of the natural lull in demand to execute on critical maintenance items.
This has been a reality for as long as the data has been accumulated, so that is already baked into the average. The second variable may have to do with fiber availability. Conversations with producers have shown that pockets of the wood pellet manufacturing universe are struggling to procure as much fiber as they would like, as upstream hardwood mills are curtailing production or closing altogether.
Mark this as an item to watch as we watch May and June data get released. Last year was a strong sales year in the East, and producers exited the season without much inventory on the ground (if any). Producers have high confidence that they will be able to move any inventory they produce, so long as they can find fiber. If May production numbers out East fall short of the five-year average again, that would be a troubling sign that fiber procurement has become a here-and-now bottleneck.
The inventory position out West has recovered a little from its super bloated position last April (118,938) and finished the month at 94,595 tons, still well above the five-year average of 74,020 tons.
