Industry Pulse Strong and Steady
September 2, 2014
BY Tim Portz
I can’t bring myself to carry forward the “chance of flurries” metaphor I used in my last installment of Ash Content. That said, I could be forgiven for doing it considering the news stories we’ve published since my Chance of Flurries blog was posted. In the last two weeks, we’ve reported on two additional pellet projects under development including the Highlands Pellets projects facility being planned in Arkansas and the Northern Energy Solutions project in New Brunswick. It is important to note that both are under development, but the Northern Energy Solutions facility has earmarked several hundred thousand dollars to perform their due diligence. That kind of capital will certainly offer more than a high-flying, cursory review of the project’s feasibility.
This morning, I had my last look at the fourth quarter edition of Pellet Mill Magazine. We build the news section from the news items that run on biomassmagazine.com throughout the quarter so it offers a nice opportunity to revisit the quarter and take the industry’s pulse. The adjectives and verbs in the section’s eight headlines offer a pretty straightforward look. Finds Potential. Expand production. Expected to Proceed. Exports to double. Export to Asia. Continue to Increase. Expand Operations. This is not an erratic heartbeat. This is the strong and steady pulse of an industry on the move.
While we are wrapping up the last print edition of 2014, our year is far from over. We are already well into our planning for 2015 and the fall will find Pellet Mill Magazine on the road for two of North America’s largest pellet association gatherings. While the Pellet Fuels Institute convened earlier this summer (be sure and catch our review of that event in the Q4 issue of Pellet Mill Magazine), both the U.S. Industrial Pellet Association and the Wood Pellet Association of Canada will convene before Thanksgiving. I’m looking forward to both events, but candidly, I’m really interested to hear how much buzz there is about the growing Asian marketplace. From where we sit, the activity level surrounding that market is on a definite uptick. This is reflected in the agendas of both events. USIPA’s second day opens with a panel about new markets, while Gordon Murray and his team will conclude their conference with a similar panel. Will the Asian market be the industry’s big story in 2015? Perhaps, but my sleeper pick is the continued growth of the residential pellet market in Europe.
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I look forward to seeing many of you in the coming months.
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