Wood biomass market development in the Slovak Republic

Abstract

One of the priorities of the EU is the creation of a resilient Energy Union with a forward looking climate policy that is capable of delivering the adopted 2020 and 2030 climate and energy targets and the EU's longer-term climate objectives. To achieve this, the EU has to decarbonize its energy supply, integrate the fragmented national energy markets into a smooth functioning and coherent European system, and set up a framework that allows the effective coordination of national states efforts. The paper deals with situation on the wooden biomass market in the frame of the Slovak Republic, and, marginally in a broader, the Central-European context. Slovakia is developing its renewable energy market based on the significant biomass resources. However, the wood biomass market is highly competitive, influenced by natural disturbances (wood supply), foreign demand, situation on the Central European market, utilisation of established capacities, launching additional resources and pressure on the prices of wood assortments. There are three major sectors consuming wood biomass: the pulp and paper industry, producers of wood-based panels and energy sector. Consumption of the wood biomass among the three competing sectors is analysed in the country range including the comparison of prices of pulpwood and wood chips. The paper also explains wood biomass market distortion and problems with the round wood assortments distribution (among sectors), and failure in respect to the principle of “wood cascading”. This paper is a part of the research study “Analysis of availability of main and alternative resources for pulp and paper industry.”