Loggers in trouble could spell......

jacked up or shortage of pellets in the Northeast . Quite a write up in this morning's paper up here in Maine . Pellets i bought recently at Tractor Supply were premium but from Montreal ,Canada . The price of diesel & the snowpack up here are shutting down a lot of logging not to mention posted roads .

The price of fuel is driving the costs up on everything - so sickening.

It's not the price of diesel,snowpack,or posted roads as much as it is the lack of a lumber market right now .

It seems like the timber market is regional. I had someone from GA contact me recently to inquire about the biz here in VA, and said it was hurting down there. I checked with those in the know both on the saw log and pulp sides and they said no problems here in the Old Dominion.

And then there's some good news....

http://www.mttimber.com/index.html

WHAT Good news? We dont want to hear that "Gotz"!! You get that good news outta here. lol. Here in Maine the pellet manufacturing looks strong....not to mention another one is almost online in Strong Maine lol...100,000 tons at that plant when it goes online.

Well, good news for me I guess. I'm aware of 3 plants going online in northern MN and northern WI, must be raw product some where up there? I haven't paid over $175 a ton since I bought my stove 3 years ago, I don't buy early dispite all the horror stories. I'm probably just getting lucky and live in a good market I guess.

My personal thoughts are that you are in a good market. The greatest influential factor impacting the prices is transportation distance. With diesel at $4.20+, the farther from the pellet plants you live the more your price/ton is going to increase. I just got $189/ton on an early buy my dealer offers. We are ~ 300 miles from pellet plant. This is $10/ton higher than they were last year at this time.

I'm thinking it's pretty strong here in michigan at the moment. No probs with high pricing or availability. And there are many still burning full tilt as if it were January/February.

Yep yer right shooter, still burning strong about 1 bag per day. I bought 2 tons today at $179. each at Lowes. Hope to have 2 1/2 tons going into next season.

I'm doing 1bag a day, too. What brand did you buy? Maeder or MWP?

Still doing a bag a day here....but a few days here and there have been less. I have a half ton in the basement. I'll get at least 2 tons for next season....maybe 2 1/2. Been a strange start to spring...cold.

It's not just diesel costs or sawdust supply that's causing pellet supply issues. Manufacturers are shipping bulk pellets to Europe and making a killing, as the exchange rate on the euro is dang near 2:1 on the dollar. To me, that is out and out treason. Americans are paying close to $250.00 per ton in the northeast, and these dirtbags are selling pellets to foreigners.

Shooter I bought Bio Plus

Can you burn Maeder Brothers pellets? That's really close to your area. I prefer Michigan Wood Pellets for the low ash and higher temps. Seems the Maeder's burn quite well and has little dust in the bag.....good stuff, though.

You are correct rich. All of the plants going online here have contracts with EU. Nice, huh? I can't stop by and get bulk for cheap because they need to fill the barge heading east. Guess we'll see how things pan out.

Really, Treason?
It is unfortunate that this is happening, but I could hardly blame the manufacturers for capitilizing on the opportunity. Our leaders haven't really done the best job of setting up a good climate for selling their product, and they certainly haven't done a good job of maintaining the strength of the dollar.
Times sure are changing....

I went spent a month in Chiapas Mexico back in 1998 and it blew my mind that I wasn't able to get a decent cup of coffee down there. I was getting served SANKA for god's sake in one of the best coffee "hot beds" of the world. I asked some of the locals what the deal was and they said that 99.99% of the crop was exported to the US and Europe.....as the producers were able to get a much better price abroad.

These things happen in the World Economy. Maybe the silver lining is that if things keep rolling on the present course we'll get some manufacturing jobs back from China.

Yes indeed, the laws of supply and demand are working well.

I agree 100%. You can't blame the pellet companies for selling to the higher priced markets. Most Americans would do the same, not sacrifice income just to help other Americans, despite what they may say.

I know for a fact here in Maine at least one plant has decided not to sell to europe and keep the pellets right here....they produce 100,000 tons a year so far.

Big thumbs up on that one. Somebody used an anology of not being able to get a decent cup of coffee in mexico because all of the good stuff was being sent to the US. there is a HUGE difference between getting a good cup of coffee and the energy independence of this country, which is truly a matter of national security. We have to break our dependence on foreign oil ASAP,and pellet fuel is part of the solution.

LOL, yeah that was me. I was just pointing out the economics of the situation. Not saying it is a good thing, but I think it is flat out wrong to blame the pellet manufacturers. So are we saying that they should take it upon themselves to sell their product for less money in the name of national security? Last I checked there was a higher power out there responsible for national security.
Just don't rip on the pellet manufacturers. They are trying to get by like everyone else. Just like us, they're giving the government a ton of money to take care of our national security. If the gov't wants to make it a priority to get us off foreign oil...then maybe they'll change the rules to make it economically viable for manufacturers to sell their product domestically.