| Catch up with PFI in this issue of the Pellet Wire! |
From the Director’s Desk: December EIA Data Recap, PFI Conference Registration Is OPEN!
December EIA Data Recap
The numbers (5-year average):
December 2024
East
Sales – 83,018 (95,655)
Production – 84,316 (90,693)
Inventory – 139,411 (88,734)
West
Sales – 32,473 (39,946)
Production – 28,869 (35,410)
Inventory – 81,613 (40,440)
South
Sales – 25,800 (27,932)
Production – 15,760 (15,672)
Inventory – 28,994 (29,190)
All U.S.
Sales – 141,291 (157,791)
Production – 121,284 (141,780)
Inventory – 250,018 (158,375)
Not as bad as November? That’s about the best that can be said for the data revealed by the EIA earlier this week. U.S. total sales for the month were 141,291 tons, a new record low for December. December sales were 78% of the five-year average, while November was a dreadful 60%.
Last month, I almost ran the Heating Degree Day index to help put the November sales figures into perspective, but an 8–14-day temperature outlook that showed a continuation of lower-than-average temperatures won the day. This edition of The Pellet Wire does include the PFI Heating Degree Day Index from January 5. The index makes it clear that while the promise of colder temperatures was starting to show up in certain markets, the heating season so far looked an awful lot like the year before. Temperatures were mild, and there was little urgency to buy or make wood pellets. U.S. total production slumped to 121,284 tons, the smallest December production since 2016. This kind of copy would be difficult to write if I didn’t have the benefit of knowing that a dramatic change in the marketplace was just around the corner.
While the industry will have to wait until next month to find out just how dramatically the market changed over the course of the month, the anecdotal evidence proffered by PFI pellet manufacturer members makes it clear that January saw a massive turnaround in wood pellet demand. Deep and prolonged cold settled over key pellet market regions of the United States, and product started to move. Reports from the field suggest that producers have moved most of their inventory, are running at full capacity, and are still filling orders. After a disappointing end to a disappointing year, the promise of a hot start to 2025 is welcome news.
PFI Conference Registration Is OPEN!
Registration for this year’s PFI Annual Conference is now open. This year’s conference is set in the heart of hardwood and wood pellet manufacturing at one of the country’s most iconic resorts: The Greenbrier. Tucked into the hills of West Virginia, The Greenbrier is a unique property with a rich history. Make plans now to join the Pellet Fuels Institute, its board of directors and members, and the vendor community that serves the wood pellet sector on June 17–19.
Schedule of Events:
Tuesday, June 17 – PFI Board of Directors Meeting, Board and Conference VIP Event
Wednesday, June 18 – PFI Annual Golf Tournament, Opening Reception
Thursday, June 19 – PFI Annual Conference, Marketplace, and Technical Discussions
I’d like to draw special attention to the Board and Conference VIP Night on Tuesday, June 17. This event is available to members of the PFI board, pellet-producing members of the PFI, and Diamond- and Platinum-level sponsors. This year’s VIP night is set in one of the most interesting pieces of Cold War history in the United States. At the height of the Cold War, a Congressional relocation bunker was secretly built underneath The Greenbrier and prepared to house members of Congress in the event of a nuclear attack on Washington, D.C. The facility included barracks, an air filtration system, a cache of foodstuffs and fresh drinking water, and facilities for Congress to continue operating the government during a time of war. Kept secret until the 1990s, an evening spent in the Congressional bunker will not soon be forgotten.
Registration, sponsorship information, a schedule of events, and confirmed speakers can be viewed online now. We look forward to welcoming you to The Greenbrier.
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—Tim Portz
Executive Director
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Remember When: To place pellet production, sales and inventory in context, it is crucial to review the PFI’s Heating Degree Day index for the time frame in question. The cold weather was starting to pile up by the end of December, but only marginally. Half of the locations on the index were still lagging in last year’s mild weather. The deep freeze was right around the corner and the January production, sales and inventory data will tell the story of a supply chain thrown into overdrive as cold weather descended upon the United States and hung around for a month.
Source: Pellet Fuels Institute
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Send Us Your Photos! Help us build a collection of photos of our members, their pellet mills, and products! Send images to Tim Portz at [email protected].
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EIA Monthly Densified Biomass Report (now with December data)
As of December 2024, the monthly data collection included 77 operating manufacturers of densified biomass fuel. These manufacturers had a total production capacity of 13.34 million tons per year and collectively had an equivalent of 2,438 full-time employees.
View Data
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Heating Degree Day Data
Heating Degree Day Data Weekly Summary
Climate Prediction Center-NCEP-NWS-NOAA
Accumulations are from July 1, 2024 to February 28, 2025
View Data
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Maine Heating Energy Price Index
The Governor’s Energy Office (GEO) conducts a weekly survey of heating fuel prices, obtained from fuel retailers statewide. This survey provides the current Maine cash prices, in dollars, rounded to the nearest penny. Prices are typically updated by Friday each week.
Read Article
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Eyeing the 119th Congress
In any other year, the biggest story for January in the wood pellet heating sector would have been the long-overdue return to cold weather across much of the United States. Wood pellet usage correlates tightly to the accumulation of heating degree days (HDDs), which have been in short supply since 2020. After lagging the accumulated HDDs of last year’s disappointingly mild season, winter returned around Christmas and hung around for all of January.
Read Article
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Bullish on Black Pellets
Blackwood Technology B.V.’s first commercial-scale black pellet plant in Lampang Province, Thailand, is online and producing at commercial scale.
Blackwood, a Dutch renewable energy technology company, focuses on the torrefaction and carbonization of biomass. Where Blackwood differs from other technologies in the industry is in its FlashTor technology, derived from its predecessor, Topell Energy. Topell demonstrated FlashTor’s success at a demo plant in Duiven, the Netherlands, and Blackwood has followed in its footsteps.
Read Article
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Are you a PFI member, pellet manufacturer, or distributor that has fuel available? Email the PFI Office to have your listing updated or added to the PFI website.
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Not a member yet? Learn more about how PFI can work for you and join today!
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Follow PFI on X, and Link with us on LinkedIn!
We’d like to connect and interact with PFI members and anyone else involved in pellet fuels production!
Here’s how you can help us build our online community:
- Follow us on X and LinkedIn!
- Encourage your colleagues and other business associates to follow us.
- Email Tim Portz at [email protected] news or other ideas to post on PFI’s social media.
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Join a PFI Committee
We welcome and encourage all interested PFI members to get involved in our committees. There are many opportunities to help steer the association. No matter where your expertise and interests lie, we have a committee that will suit you. Help us plan our next conference, shape our policy agenda, lead communications outreach, or grow the PFI Standards Program.
Visit PFI's Committee Page for more information.
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Have News to Share in the Pellet Wire?
We would love to feature your company's news in a future Pellet Wire! Let us be the first to know about your company's recent developments, and we will share them with the broader pellet fuels industry.
Please consider the Pellet Wire for staff announcements, new hires, promotions, and retirements.
Please get in touch with Tim Portz via email at [email protected] with information on your company's growth, job openings, or other news.
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