EIA: Densified biomass fuel production at 910,000 tons in January

The U.S. Energy Information Administration recently released data showing U.S. manufacturers produced approximately 910,000 tons of densified biomass fuel in January, with sales reaching 650,000 tons.

The data was released as part of the April edition of EIA’s Monthly Densified Biomass Fuels Report, which contains data for January. The EIA collected data from 79 operating manufacturers of densified biomass fuel to complete the report. The report does not include data on facilities with annual production capacities of less than 10,000 tons. Those smaller facilities report data annually rather than monthly.

The 79 manufacturers surveyed for January had a total combined production capacity of 13.05 million tons per year and collectively had the equivalent of 2,544 full-time employees.

Respondents purchased 960,000 tons of raw biomass feedstock in January, produced 910,000 tons of densified biomass fuel and sold 640,000 million tons of densified biomass fuel. Production included 141,466 tons of heating pellets and 712,244 tons of utility pellets.

Domestic sales of densified biomass fuel in January reached 154,507 tons at an average price of $210.94 per ton. Exports in January reached 502,850 tons at an average price of $191.31 per ton.

Inventories of premium/standard pellets expanded 103,827 tons in January, up from 85,259 tons in December. Inventories of utility pellets reached 501,508 tons in January, up from 410,633 tons in December.

The EIA cautioned that some totals reported in its April densified biomass fuel report may be relatively smaller because the agency withheld some values to avoid disclosure of individual company data.

Data gathered by the EIA shows that total U.S. densified biomass fuel capacity reached 13.38 million tons in January, with all of that capacity listed as currently operating or temporarily not in operation. Capacity included 1.96 million tons in the East, 10.51 million tons in the South, and 908,700 tons in the West.