The annual feedstock requirement of the 20+ biomass power plants that are being planned in the UK amounts to more than 30 million tonnes of green wood chips or equivalent biomass, more than is currently imported by Japan’s pulp and paper industry, which for years has been by far the world’s biggest wood chip market. In April 2010, Hawkins Wright will publish a multi-client study assessing the commercial implications of these investments.

AFTER FIFTEEN MONTHS of rising prices, the pulp market is starting to look a little fragile as production continues to ramp-up despite a sharp decline in Chinese orders. The global economic recovery is also showing signs of stalling, as evidenced by crumbling consumer confidence in the US, Europe’s continued debt crisis, and recent downward revisions to China’s economic growth prospects.