Latvian wood pellet, chip exports down in April

Combined wood pellet and chip throughputs at the Latvian ports of Riga and Liepaja fell in April from a year earlier, with pellet loadings almost halving compared with April 2021.

Wood pellet loadings at Latvia's two major ports fell by 101,000t on the year to 128,000t.

The bulk of the decrease in pellet shipments was in Riga — where throughput more than halved to 95,000t from 196,000t a year earlier. Loadings a Liepaja held flat on the year at 32,000t.

Combined wood pellet throughput at the ports in January-April dropped by over 200,000t from 903,000t in the same period last year

Baltic wood pellet shipments are typically bound to fulfil UK and Danish demand. UK biomass-fired generation fell to 1.7GW on an hourly basis in April from 2GW a year earlier, mostly owing to shutdowns at all three 133MW units at Czech-Slovak utility EPH's Lynemouth plant and at two of UK generator Drax's 645MW biomass-fired units. Danish generation from biomass also fell, to 500MW from 700MW a year earlier.

Higher wood pellet production costs in March and April supported export prices in the Baltic states compared with the first two months of the year. Production may also have fallen as a result of lower receipts of raw material from Russia and Belarus, historically key suppliers to the region, and because of competition for raw material from the pulp and paper industries.

Domestic demand for locally produced pellets also increased in the Baltic states as wood pellets maintained a cost advantage over alternate fuels, and because of trade disruption with Russia and Belarus.

On the wood chips side, Latvian loadings fell in April to 85,000t from 98,000t a year earlier, following a slight increase on the year in March. It is typical for wood chip exports from Riga and Liepaja to fall in April after peaking in February or March, and as demand begins to tail off at the end of the heating season.

By John Cooper