“The pellets won’t arrive until early 2023 at the earliest,” the Krone headlined in August. It was not the last post about the long delivery times of the heating material. Wood shortage in a country almost half covered with forest? Hardly, as the Federal Competition Authority (BWB) now suspects: they are currently conducting house searches at several well-known pellet producers. The competition authority suspects price fixing and price inflation.
The charge: Deliberately withholding quotas – ie, intentionally reducing supply to keep prices high – and price fixing. Apparently with success: According to the association ProPellets Austria, the price of wood pellets has more than doubled within a year: from almost 23 cents per kilo in September 2021 to almost 57 cents last month.
The Tyrolean Chamber of Labor launched the BWB investigation in mid-September. At the time, she referred to statements she had, according to which the wood pellet stocks of some local suppliers were well filled and there could be no shortages.
If there had been a shortage on the European market, Austrian pellet exports should have increased. But this is not the case either. An industry spokesman explained the huge price increases at the time with higher costs for raw materials, energy and spare parts, as well as the war in Ukraine, which resulted in fewer pellets being delivered to Europe. Hamster purchases in Austria are also responsible.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
