Lumber Demand Off In Europe But Expected To Be Strong In BC
Monday, April 1, 2013 @ 3:56 AM
Prince George- While BC lumber producers are looking south of the border and to China for increased lumber demands over the next year, that hasn’t been the case according to Wood Resources International’s Hakan Eckstrom.
He says as a result of a reduced demand in Europe, log imports exports fell from over 14 million cubic meters in 2011 to an estimated 10.8 million in 2012. Much of the decline has come from Russia and the Baltic states prompting fears that Russia may try to ramp up their exports to China to make up for the shortfalls.
European demand for lumber continues to be weak says Eckstrom, but in spite of recent price declines , current price levels are higher than the ten year average in all major markets throughout Europe.
Pine saw log prices have fallen about 15% in Sweden over the past two years , while spruce logs have fallen by about 25%.
By contrast, Canada and in particular BC, have been optimistic that there will be an increased demand for Canadian lumber in the USA over the next 12 to 24 months and that, combined with an increasing demand in China, has Canadian mills expecting busy times ahead.
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Europe and England are discovering that the billions wasted on wind generators and solar power was one of their dumbest ideas causing a drastic rise in energy cost and threatening blackouts. This along with their cooling climate for the last five years, the sale and rise of wood burning stove use has shown a mercuric rise and a big problem in wood theft in their forests.
Along with wood pellets we should be sending them firewood.
Good old US Lumber market will save our butts once again.
In Germany they reduced their solar costs by a fifth in the last five years and now produce solar power cheaper than fossil fuel power.
In Germany and just about everywhere else for that matter solar and wind energy is heavily subsidized so the true costs are not out front. With so called renewable energy heavily subsidized about 15% of the German population lives in energy poverty. The average increase to Germans in costs is about 800 dollars a year to pay for the subsidies.
Another thing Germany receives about the same amount of sun as Alaska so why spend all that money on solar. Oh and don’t forget snow covering all those panels and it has been a dark and gloomy winter over there this year.
Germany took the irrational move of shutting down their nuclear power stations and have found so called renewable energy does not cut it. They purchase a lot of power from France which is 80% nuclear, funny.
About their green energy they are building coal powered plants as fast as they can finding out the hard way green dream does not make up the difference in shutting down their nuclear.
Oh when the sun does not shine, what do they use for power? Conventional backs up solar and wind.
Obama is trying to shut down US coal plants because he drank from the renewable cup but Germany buys as much coal from the US as they can get their hands on.
In Germany the installed solar is 32 GW but have only generated about 3 GW over the month of Jan.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/08/28/germanys-new-renewable-energy-policy/
“about 15% of the German population lives in energy poverty”
So, what is energy poverty in Germany? Is it the same as in Canada?
It seems here that energy poverty means households that spend more
than 10 percent of their income on home energy.
According to the linked site, 20% of people in Ontario spend an average of 12% of their income on utilities (presumably those relating to energy consumption).
Sounds like with all the hydro, the nuclear, the natural gas, the oil, the wood, and even the solar and wind, etc. that we have, the Germans are still better off than people in Ontario.
Interesting.
http://gwpoverty.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Energy-Poverty.pdf
It seems that while we have this energy poverty, we have the energy policy to sell as much of it as possible to other countries while forgetting that energy poverty seems to affect about 1 million households in Canada, forcing many to choose between heating their homes and buying groceries.
Great way of taking care of our own NEEDS!
So what does energy poverty look like in BC?
“A report for the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Resources estimated that about 292,000 BC households (18%) were living in energy poverty in 2005.”
http://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/BC%20Office/2011/09/CCPA-BC_Fighting-Energy-Poverty.pdf
2005 was 7 years ago. I doubt conditions have changed for the worse.
That last sentence should read: “I doubt conditions have changed for the better” :-(
The building of very expensive inefficient wind and solar generation is the biggest contributor to energy poverty and rise in home energy costs. 15, 20% is that really a difference. Turning down the thermostat in winter leads to more sickness and death in the winter. The estimated deaths in England this winter is 25 to 30 thousand due to energy poverty.
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