In April, U.S. manufacturers produced approximately 850,000 tons of densified biomass fuels, with sales reaching 780,000 tons, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Monthly Densified Biomass Fuels Report released in July.
The report compiled data from 76 active manufacturers of densified biomass fuel. Facilities with annual production capacities below 10,000 tons provide annual rather than monthly data and were not included in this report.
The surveyed manufacturers had a combined annual production capacity of 13.17 million tons and employed a total of 2,527 full-time workers. In April, these manufacturers purchased 1.53 million tons of raw biomass feedstock, producing 850,000 tons of densified biomass fuel, including 124,324 tons of heating pellets and 731,467 tons of utility pellets.
Domestic sales of densified biomass fuel totaled 73,179 tons in April, selling at an average price of $220.21 per ton. Exports for the same period amounted to 714,829 tons, with an average price of $193.58 per ton.
Inventory levels in April showed an increase in premium/standard pellets to 359,841 tons from 313,066 tons in March, while utility pellet inventories decreased to 522,635 tons from 544,217 tons in the previous month.
The EIA data confirmed that total U.S. densified biomass fuel capacity in April stood at 13.26 million tons, with all reported capacity either actively operating or temporarily inactive. Geographically, the East accounted for 1.97 million tons of capacity, the South for 10.5 million tons, and the West for 797,200 tons.
