|
V4 N2 Paper 8
|
Annals of the International Masters of Business Administration at
UNC Wilmington
|
Fall 2011
|
Financial Analysis of the Transport of Wood Chips as an Option Among Other Solid Fiberbased Combustibles From The USA To Germany
Wulf-Clemens von Wuehlisch
Committee
Abstract
The European demand for wood chips and wood pellets is strongly increasing in the course of a new energy policy. This new policy limits the use of non-renewable energy sources to a maximum of 80 % in favor of a 20 % renewable energy mix by 2020. Besides the main re-newable energy sources, wind and hydro, woody biomass shall contribute the largest part of the generation of heat and power. As North West European wood resources are not sufficient for this sudden demand, the region relies on imports from abroad. The large renewable wood resources of the North American continent could be used increasingly to supply woody biomass to North West European countries like Germany.
This thesis analyzes the profitability of US American exports of woody biomass to Ger-many. To see under which conditions the transport has its maximum rate of return, four trans-porting categories are investigated. Firstly, it will be analyzed whether the woody biomass should be compressed to pellets, secondly which type and cargo handling features the vessel should have, thirdly which charter conditions, harbors, trade terms, and routes should be taken and fourthly, which market conditions under current market prices for energy wood, variation of exchange rates and fuel oil prices are favorable, to improve the efficiency of the transport. Be-yond that, also the Canadian exports have been analyzed in order to benchmark the market leader against the USA.
In general, the transatlantic trade of industrial wood pellets and, under favorable circum-stances, also the transport of wood chips from the USA is profitable. Currently, best profit mar-gins can be earned when transporting industrial pellets between the US southern east coast and Berlin, which vary between US$ 21.36/t to 27.70/t.
Canadian industrial wood pellet sourcing, as the biggest competitor to the USA, is more beneficial and margins reach up to US$ 32.09 per ton of pellets. However, as pelletizing capaci-ties in the Great Lake region and the east coast and especially the southeastern region of the USA are expanding, southeastern trade could overcome the profitability of trading Canadian pellets within the coming years, especially due to the shorter transporting distance and avoidance of the costly passage through the Panama Canal.
download
(pdf)
Recommended Citation:
von Wuehlisch, W., Graham, E, Ciner, C., Dumas, C. (2011) Financial Analysis of the Transport of Wood Chips as an Option Among Other Solid Fiberbased Combustibles From The USA To Germany. Annals of the International Masters of Business Administration at UNC Wilmington, 4(2) paper 8. http://csbapp.uncw.edu/data/imba/current.aspx.
|
V4 N2 Paper 8
|
Annals of the International Masters of Business Administration at
UNC Wilmington
|
Fall 2011
|
