There is now talk of a "real elimination race for the raw material". The parties involved are the paper and panel industry as regards materials and primarily the pellets industry on the thermal side. In April, the pellets price reached over € 320/t—this is the highest level ever achieved.
Sawdust most likely at record level
According to the Timber Online survey, the price for sawdust increased by € 2/loose cubic meter in April, resulting in a price range of € 13.5 to 14.8/loose cubic meter, loaded ex sawmill. This is more than double the price of the previous year. When looking for a similar price level, we have to go all the way back to the Q2 of 2011—but even then, it was about 50 cents/loose cubic meter lower, as the price data in Datacube show. Austria has never seen such a price level for sawdust, at least not since 2006. In other words, this most probably is the highest price ever.
There are no signs that sawdust demand will dwindle. Pellet boiler sales have already been on record levels in Germany and Austria lately. As a result, pellets production will be boosted even more—despite the fact that “sawdust volumes are already allocated”. Since more and more timber companies start producing pellets in-house, available sawdust volumes are becoming scarce. In light of the Russian war in Ukraine and the sword of Damocles "no more Russian gas", the predicament has become even more acute.
For wood chips, the situation is similar. Timber Online surveyed an April price range of € 15.5 to 17.4/loose cubic meter, which is € 2.2/loose cubic meter more than in March. According to Datacube, the last period with a similar price level was March 2014.
