EIA: Densified biomass fuel sales reach 710,000 tons in February

The U.S. Energy Information Administration recently released data showing U.S. manufacturers produced approximately 700,000 tons of densified biomass fuel in February, with sales reaching 710,000 tons.

The data was released as part of the May edition of the EIA’s Monthly Densified Biomass Fuel Report, which includes data for February. The EIA collected data from 83 operating manufacturers of densified biomass fuel to complete the report. The report does not include data from facilities with annual production capacities of less than 10,000 tons. Those smaller facilities report data annually rather than monthly.

The 83 manufactures that submitted data for February have a combined annual production capacity of 11.85 million tons per year and collectively had the equivalent of 2,294 full-time employees.

In February, respondents purchased 1.33 million tons of raw biomass feedstock, produced 700,000 tons of densified biomass fuel and sold 710,000 tons of densified biomass fuel. Production included 138,086 tons of heating pellets and 565,496 tons of utility pellets.

Domestic sales of densified biomass fuel reached 168,415 tons at an average price of $165.61 per ton. Exports reached 547,080 tons at an average price of $167.69 tons.

Inventories of premium/standard wood pellets fell to 46,527 tons in February, down from 54,371 tons in January. Inventories of utility wood pellets reached 229,335 tons in February, up from 223,283 tons in January.

Data gathered by the EIA shows that total U.S. densified biomass fuel production capacity reached 11.9 million metric tons in February, including 2.13 million tons of capacity in the East, 9.01 million tons of capacity in the South and 761,501 tons of capacity in the West.