Danish wood pellet imports fell by nearly a third in September from a year earlier and the country received a rare cargo from Brazil. Another Brazilian pellet cargo — the fourth for 2024 — was delivered in November, ship-tracking data suggest.
Overall Danish wood pellet imports of 129,000t in September were sharply lower on the year and compared with the 2020-22 average for the month, customs data show. This is broadly in line with weaker biomass-fired generation at major utilities.
Brazil was Denmark's second-largest supplier in September with 24,000t, behind the US (see table). Denmark received two other Brazilian cargoes earlier this year — 3,000t in March and 17,000t in April — having taken no pellets from Brazil since at least 2012.
A 15,000t cargo that was loaded at Brazil's Antonina port arrived in Denmark on 22 November, vessel-tracking data from trade analytics platform Kpler show. This would take total Danish receipts of Brazilian wood pellets to around 60,000t so far this year.
Brazilian pellets are typically high-quality, low-ash material that is primarily shipped to the residential segment in Europe. Denmark's receipts of Brazilian pellets were likely to be used by its residential consumers or exported to neighbouring countries. Danish residential and commercial consumption of premium pellets fell to around 700,000t in 2023 from well over 1mn t a year earlier, Bioenergy Europe data show. Italy, which is the world's largest residential pellet importer, has also seen a sharp rise in Brazilian pellet imports in the first nine months of this year.
Denmark's US receipts continued to see year-on-year gains in September and were well above their 2020-22 average for the month. In contrast, imports from the Baltic states maintained a declining trend, as receipts from Estonia and Latvia fell by 90pc and 77pc, respectively, compared with a year earlier in September. Cheaper North American supplies for most of the first nine months of 2024 and persistently high raw material costs in the Baltic states rendered pellets from the latter less competitive than US material over the period.
| Danish wood pellet imports, September | 000t | ||||
| Sep 24 | Sep 23 | ± 24/23 | 20-22 Sep avg | ± 24/20-22 avg | |
| US | 68.8 | 62.4 | 6.4 | 54.7 | 14.1 |
| Brazil | 24.3 | 0.4 | 23.9 | 0.0 | 24.3 |
| Estonia | 6.3 | 64.9 | -58.6 | 24.3 | -24.3 |
| Latvia | 4.5 | 19.6 | -15.2 | 34.4 | -30.0 |
| Lithuania | 1.0 | 1.7 | -0.7 | 10.6 | -9.6 |
| Total | 128.9 | 186.7 | -57.8 | 211.1 | -82.2 |
| — customs data | |||||
