Woodlets price pressures

Woodlets price pressures

24 March 2022

Lots of you are asking why Woodlets prices have gone up so much.

For the past two years, our prices remained static even as manufacturing prices began to rise.

We are now no longer able to absorb increasing production costs. 

In an already fragile market – after Brexit and Covid, we’ve been hit by the Ukraine Crisis which is affecting fuel and energy costs globally and we cannot sustain the hits.

In short:

  • The little energy we import has increased – up 600%
  • Packaging manufacturing has doubled – up 200%
  • Haulage and fuel prices are being affected daily – up 50% this year
  • Physical pallets have doubled in price – up 200%
  • We are a living wage employer
  • Forest harvesting has been hit by new government legislation. New Red Diesel laws mean we can no longer use it on our manufacturing and processing site. And lorries taking timber away from the forests have to use standard diesel. This means our fuel bills have increased from around 80p a litre to the standard £1.70 a litre.

Overall, prices of wood pellets in the UK are thought to have risen by between 25% and 40%, in line with costs across Europe.

The recent UK ban on imported  Russian wood pellets means there is now a shortfall of around 360,000 tonnes of wood pellets across the UK (3.3 million tonnes across the EU and the UK combined) (source: Hawkins-Wright).

Also, there is no FSC® material imported from Russia and Belarus until the current Ukraine crisis ends, which means Russian pellets will no longer qualify as ENPlus.

Mark Lebus, chair of the UK Pellet Council, said “Wood pellets will no longer be sourced from Russia or imported from Russian producers. Given the previous levels of Russian exports, this will have an impact on supply worldwide, not just to the UK but for other countries who are all now competing for the same premium product from similar suppliers.

We are doing our best to keep Woodlets price increases to a minimum. Our secure onshore supply chain guarantees continuous production at our plant in South West Scotland. But there is huge demand.

Rest assured that Woodlets is the best sustainable wood pellet in the UK today, and is the most cost-effective fuel heating solution.

Wood pellet prices

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