NAWFR Reports 21% Surge in Global Wood Pellet Trade in 2018

The latest edition of North American Wood Fiber Review (NAWFR) provides an update of global timber and wood products market and trade data for 2018.

 

The global trade of wood pellets has surged higher significantly by over 21% in 2018. A total of 22.3 million tons were shipped during the year as compared with total shipments of around 18.5 million tons in 2017. The top five pellet exporting countries were the U.S., Canada, Vietnam, Latvia and Russia. These five countries accounted for nearly 69% of the global shipments during 2018. The other major exporters were Estonia, Austria, Malaysia, Denmark and Germany, said NAWFR.

 

The major destination of wood pellet exports was the Europe. Meantime, Asia has reported notable surge in imports of pellets over the past three years. Incidentally, Japan and South Korea reported record volume of import during the previous year. Most of the imports by these countries were from countries in southeastern Asian region such as Vietnam and Malaysia.

 

The year 2018 reinforced U.S.’s position as the world’s largest producer and exporter of wood pellets. The exports from the region were up sharply by nearly 50% between the first and last quarters of 2018. The U.S. consumes only a small share of the pellet production domestically, whereas majority of the production is exported to three primary destinations- the U.K., Belgium and Denmark.