South Korean wood pellet imports hit high in November

South Korean wood pellet imports reached an all-time high in November, as more cargoes reached Busan and Pohang ports compared with last month.

South Korea imported 358,867t of wood pellets in November, up by 69.2pc from 212,150t in November last year. This was also 7.8pc higher than t October when imports reached what was then the historic high of 333,002t for any month.

Imports through Gwangyang and Gunsan, the main ports for bringing wood pellets into South Korea, were stable in November. Pellet imports through Busan and Pohang ports increased compared with the previous month, a South Korean trader said.

Busan and Pohang ports are used for delivering wood pellets to utility Koen's 125MW Yeongdong No.1 unit, according to market participants. The unit consumes 550,000 t/yr of wood pellets at capacity.

Koen is expected to burn even more wood pellets in 2020 as the conversion of Yeongdong No.2 from coal to biomass is scheduled to be completed by June 2020. The 200MW No.2 unit is expected to consume an additional 900,000 t/yr at capacity, taking the company's requirement to 1.45mn t/yr and making Yeongdong the largest dedicated biomass-fired plant in South Korea with a combined capacity of 325MW.

If Koen had not planned to convert Yeongdong No.2 to biomass, the unit would have been shut by 2025 because it was one of the 10 older coal plants that the government ordered retired ahead of schedule under a plan to phase out coal use for power generation.

Wood pellets from Vietnam still dominated South Korea's imports in November, accounting for a 61pc share. South Korea received 219,035t of Vietnamese pellets in November, up by 79.3pc from a year earlier and up by 6.4pc from October.

Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand were South Korea's second-, third- and fourth-largest suppliers in October, accounting for 20.1pc, 7.6pc and 6.6pc of deliveries respectively. These three countries supplied a total volume of 123,099t to South Korea, up by 66.1pc from a year earlier.