TY - JOUR
TI - Development of wood pellets market in South East Europe
AU - Glavonjić Branko D
AU - Krajnc Nike
AU - Paluš Hubert
JN - Thermal Science
PY - 2015
VL - 19
IS - 3
SP - 781
EP - 792
PT - Article
AB - The paper presents the results of researching wood pellets market in nine  countries in South East Europe and Slovakia. Objective of the research was to  observe the actual situation regarding the number of producers, size of  installed capacities, production volume, foreign trade flows and existing  problems and obstacles which significantly limit the sustainable development  of wood pellets market in the selected countries. Selection of such an  objective results from the fact that according to the stated elements there  are no sufficiently reliable data, wherefore this region is a huge gap in  numerous reports of international and national organizations and  institutions. Results of the conducted research show that in the middle of  2014, 245 producers were engaged in wood pellets production in South East  Europe and Slovakia, 116 of which were located in Bulgaria and Serbia. Most  of the producers of wood pellets has installed capacities of 1,000-5,000 tons  annually, while only 18 factories in the entire region have the installed  capacity over 30,000 tons/year. Observed collectively in all stated  countries, the total installed capacities for wood pellets production were  2.2 million tons in 2013 and the realized production was 1.36 million tons.  The largest part of the produced amounts of wood pellets in this region is  exported. 1.06 million tons were exported from the region in 2013, which is  77.9% of the realized production. Such high export is the result of the  underdevelopment of the local market (Slovenia is the only exception) and the  problems which exist and limit its faster development in most countries.