Pellet prices in Germany continue to decline in January. Overall, wood pellets cost as much as they did about 2 years ago.<\/p>\n
On the dealer platform heizpellets24, wood pellets cost less than 300 euros per ton in six federal states, and in other federal states the 300 euro mark is not too far away. On holzpellets.net the price level is slightly higher: however, in Baden-W\u00fcrttemberg it has already fallen below the 300 euro mark. The price trend here is also clearly downwards.<\/p>\n
The 300 euro mark for wood pellets is wobbling<\/strong><\/p>\n Demand from German pellet buyers remains surprisingly high. \u201cDue to the low prices, household stockpiling activity picked up again. 2023 will also be the year with the highest demand in online retail to date,\u201d say the experts at Holzpellets24. One reason for the continued high demand is the many newly installed pellet heaters during the energy crisis. Another important aspect, however, is that pellet buyers are monitoring the market more closely than in the past and are now reacting immediately to falling prices. This stronger orientation towards current market developments has also recently ensured continued strong customer interest. The experts at Heizpellet24 have determined that the national average pellet prices fell to 303 euros per ton in the second week of January. at holzpellets.net it is an average of 306 euros per ton.<\/p>\n Market observers also assume that in 2024 pellet customers in Germany could see a ton price that starts with a two for the first time in over two years. At least that is what the typical seasonal price patterns of the past suggest. After a rather sideways price development in January and February in normal years, pellet prices usually fall significantly at the end of the heating season from March or April. According to market observers' expectations, this could also happen this year. Pellet prices may fall below 300 euros sooner. At least that's what the current market development suggests.<\/p>\n Why pellet prices will continue to fall in 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n The national average pellet prices reached their lowest level in two years around the beginning of December and continued to fall in January. According to most pellet experts, one reason for the sharp decline in pellet prices is the sharp drop in the price of wood and wood by-products. The fall in prices on the wood market has also depressed prices for most other wood products and wood by-products such as wood pellets in recent months.<\/p>\n An increase in the price of wood pellets can therefore only be expected if wood prices rise significantly again or if the supply of wood and wood by-products becomes noticeably shorter due to reduced wood production. However, this is not yet apparent. The construction crisis is putting ongoing pressure on the wood market, which the sawmill industry would actually have to respond to by significantly reducing production. So far, this has only happened to a limited extent, as greater production cuts would mean layoffs, which people avoid because they know that staff who are gone won't come back. The second reason is that the construction industry is not as sluggish in all countries as in Germany and the German sawmills are finding sufficient sales on export markets.<\/p>\n Pellet price depends on the wood market<\/strong><\/p>\n This means that domestic production of wood pellets expanded significantly in 2023 and even exceeds the domestic demand from private customers, which also grew slightly. The demand for pellets would have increased more sharply if the discussions about the heating law had not caused the expansion of pellet heating systems to collapse by almost 50%. This structural excess supply also puts pressure on pellet prices and prevents or significantly slows down an increase.<\/p>\n Pellet dealers also cite another important reason for the persistently low pellet prices: Many customers stocked up very early this year at the last price low in April in order to avoid a possible price increase at the end of the year (like in 2022) or to avoid suddenly facing delivery problems stand, as was the case last year. In addition, the prices, even with inflation of 10% added, are still significantly above the average prices that were usual until the end of 2021. All in all, pellet prices are expected to continue to fall rather than rise.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pellet prices in Germany continue to decline in January. Overall, wood pellets cost as much as they did about 2 years ago. On the dealer platform heizpellets24, wood pellets cost less than 300 euros per ton in six federal states, … Continue reading