In the 3Q/12, total shipments were up 70 percent year-over-year to 860 000 tons. The growth is expected to continue with numerous plans for adding capacity.

Beyond the trade statistics tracking the rise of pellet export volumes, another spate of export pellet plant announcements emphasized the quickly growing trade

relations that are being established between European power utilities

and US pellet producers. The most striking announcement came in mid-December when Drax, a United Kingdom power company, stated its

intention to build two 450,000 tons pellet plants, one in the state of

Louisiana and one in Mississippi.

The three major European pellet import countries remain the UK, the Netherlands, and Belgium, while Italy, Denmark and Sweden are notably involved in pellet imports from North America, but on a much smaller scale. Denmark’s Dong Energy utility, however, announced its intentions to switch to woody biomass at three of its coal plants, an action likely to add demand from the US Southeast, according to Wood Fiber Review.