13 March 2011

The total capacity of the existing 34 mills is 2.6 million ton told Gordon Murray at the European Pellet Conference in Wels March 2011. It is comparable to the total capacity of the Russian pellet mills.

71 percent of the Canadian capacity is located in the west, mainly British Colombia. There are 16 plants, the average capacity is 118 000 ton and the largest has 400 000 t. The total western capacity is 1 889 000 tons. Notable is that Beetle killed wood has become a most important source.
The eastern part has 29 percent of total pellet capacity. The 18 plants have an average of 43 000 ton and the largest is 120 000 tons.
Almost all Canadian production is exported. 1,7 Mton to Europe, 0.9 Mton to USA and 100 000 ton to Japan.
For the future Gordon Murray sees Korea as a comming huge market for Canadian pellets. If 5 percent of the Korean coal consumption was to be exchanged for pellets the need will be 6 Mton pellets a year.
The Canadian domestic use is small and no signs for a development are visible. It is so similar with the situation in Russia. “You are doing great job!”, - tell Gordon Murray to the Russian pellet producers.

 

 

Author: 
Lennart Ljungblom, The Bioenergy International