I just heard around the water cooler today that the price of hardwood sawdust (one the ingredients to pellets) is on the up swing - big time. The local pellet mill (that sometimes would get sawdust from the lumberyard where I am employed) at one time could truck all their material in from within 40 miles, now they are going out of state just to keep up with demand. My supervisor also told us the price per trailer load has tripled in the last year!markviii wrote:The availability of pellets can change pretty quickly depending on what the lumber industry is doing. I live in update NY as well, my local stove shop told me that it is getting very hard for them to secure their next order of pellets.
As a side effect, the farms up here can't afford sawdust for bedding anymore. All of the sawdust goes to the pellet mills.
I don't know if the logic works out, but with the down turn in housing, a lot of wood product manufactures here in Central Pa are slowing down production. Which should mean less total lumber. Which should mean less total waste (sawdust). Which should means higher sawdust price. Which should mean higher pellet price$$$
On the coal side - what affects it's supply? Or it simply demand side economics?