In April, U.S. manufacturers produced around 850,000 tons of densified biomass fuels, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration‘s (EIA) Monthly Densified Biomass Fuels Report released in July. During the same month, sales of densified biomass fuel totaled 780,000 tons.
The EIA compiled this data from 76 active manufacturers of densified biomass fuel. Notably, the report excludes facilities with annual production capacities below 10,000 tons, as these facilities submit data annually rather than monthly. The 76 manufacturers surveyed for April had a combined annual production capacity of 13.17 million tons and collectively employed the equivalent of 2,527 full-time workers.
In April, these respondents purchased 1.53 million tons of raw biomass feedstock, produced 850,000 tons of densified biomass fuel, and sold 780,000 tons of the fuel. The production breakdown included 124,324 tons of heating pellets and 731,467 tons of utility pellets.
Domestic sales of densified biomass fuel reached 73,179 tons in April, with an average price of $220.21 per ton. Exports for the month were 714,829 tons, priced at an average of $193.58 per ton. Premium and standard pellet inventories grew to 359,841 tons in April, up from 313,066 tons in March. Conversely, utility pellet inventories decreased to 522,635 tons in April, down from 544,217 tons in March.
According to the EIA’s data, the total U.S. densified biomass fuel capacity in April was 13.26 million tons. This capacity includes facilities that are either operational or temporarily not in operation. The regional breakdown of this capacity includes 1.97 million tons in the East, 10.5 million tons in the South, and 797,200 tons in the West.