Ah ha! Maybe these sanctions will be the ones that bring the Russians to their knees.
From Lesprom (B2B for wood, timber), June 9:
From July 10, the Russian wood pellet exports to Europe, the main market for Russian companies, will be completely stopped. From this date, EU sanctions will come into effect, limiting the supply of wood products from Russia and Belarus. According to Lesprom Analytics, in 2021 the European Union accounted for 80% of Russian wood pellet exports, supplies amounted to 1.95 million tons and value amounted to $320 million. Russia also supplies small volumes of pellets to South Korea (7% of total exports), the UK (6%), and Japan (4.5%). In the first quarter of 2022, the volume of exports of wood pellets from Russia to the EU increased by 14%, to 478 thousand tons, and the value amounted to $85 million. Exports of wood pellets from Russia to the UK in the first quarter, according to Lesprom Analytics, increased by 6%, however, this growth was driven by an exceptionally sharp increase in January (+120%, 49 thousand tons), in March shipments fell by 76% to 7 thousand tons.....
....MUCH MORE
Oddly the article says it is uneconomic to ship the wood pellets to China even though Britain's huge Drax* power plant burns pellets made from Southeastern U.S. pine trees.
Previously:
Thursday, May 30, 2013:
Bonfire of the Subsidies: Europe Returns to Early Stone Age Fuel as Putin Mocks
From Nov. 2012:
Mocking Europe's Energy Policy: "Putin invites Europeans to Siberia for firewood"
From RT:
European countries should pursue a balanced energy policy, otherwise they will have to buy the firewood in Siberia, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has joked.Good yuks from the old propagandists at the former Russia Today.
Putin made it clear again that Europe and Russia are dependent on each other. He was speaking with German businessmen in Berlin on Friday. They gathered at a business conference organized by the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
“The German public does not like the nuclear power industry for some reason,” Putin said, adding that he would not comment on it. “But I cannot understand what fuel you will take for heating,” he said anyway.
“You do not want gas, you do not develop the nuclear power industry, so you will heat with firewood?” Putin asked, as reported by Itar-Tass. “Then you will have to go to Siberia to buy the firewood there,” he said, adding that Europeans “do not even have firewood.”
*Drax is the largest power plant in Britain at just under 4 megawatts capacity and has been converted from coal to biomass-and-coal to biomass base load with natural gas peakers.
Some of our previous looks at wood-fired electricity in Europe:
Back to the Future: "UK’s Renewable Energy Targets Drive Increases in U.S. Wood Pellet Exports"
Hey Gang, Want To Participate In Britain's Back-to-the-Future "We Burn Wood" Energy Program? (EVA)
"What's Replacing Coal In Europe? Imported Wood"
