Firewood is becoming rare and expensive in Luxembourg
The demand for fuels has increased enormously in recent months due to the war in Ukraine.
High demand, but limited supply
The demand for fuels has increased enormously in recent months due to the war in Ukraine.
Musa Pilici was prosperous to be able to fill all his orders with complete peace of mind this year. He has been selling firewood at Co-Labor for over 35 years, primarily to individuals. But today, Musa Pilici no longer enjoys answering the phone that keeps ringing, because he has to keep more and more customers waiting.
“More and more people want to stock up for the winter, but we can offer less and less,” he says. According to him, the demand for firewood has increased considerably since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. And in recent weeks, it has gone from being a mass product to a rare commodity. “If you don’t place an order now, you won’t have anything left in September,” warns Pilici. “In the 35 years that I have worked here, I have never seen such high demand.”
At Co-labor, Luxembourg beech wood comes from FSC-certified forests. The FSC is an international forest management certification system; it makes it possible to identify wood and paper products that come from forests managed according to specific ecological and social criteria.
Sharp rise in prices
The cooperative, based on the principles of sustainable development, claims not to have changed the prices of firewood, despite the marked increase in demand. “In general, however, prices have risen sharply on the market,” says Musa Pilici, who himself currently charges 180 euros for two cubic meters of loose dry wood. Other timber merchants believe a 40% price hike is likely.
For the company “Gieweler Holzknacker” too, the demand for firewood is higher than it has ever been, confirms Claude Thein. “We receive a lot of requests from customers who want to stock up for the winter. Unfortunately, we cannot satisfy them, mainly because we no longer sell as much firewood. Our main activity is currently wood chips”.
“We don’t kill enough”
“The situation is critical,” says another major timber trader in the country. Many customers would call every day. “They apparently fear that firewood will be scarce and expensive in September and October,” he says. “But unfortunately we can no longer meet the demand, we ourselves no longer receive supplies.”
The problem: according to him, not as much wood is felled in Luxembourg as before. “We only sell Luxembourg wood, but there is not enough cut firewood”, regrets the trader, who called for an appointment with the competent ministry “to find solutions as quickly as possible”.
In the meantime, the merchant receives many offers from abroad. “Every week, someone calls us, but the offer does not interest us because we have the ‘Made in Luxembourg’ label”. If he does not find a way out of the crisis, he will probably have to turn to foreign timber. He does not understand the logic of the Luxembourg market: “We sell our wood abroad to then re-import it from abroad, it is not understandable”. The timber trader can currently only supply some of his customers. “We are out of stock and will only be able to sell from September”.
“Availability is limited”
At the same time, the demand for pellets is also increasing in Luxembourg, while prices are soaring. “Pellets are almost twice as expensive as in 2020-2021. For fear of a shortage in winter, wood and pellets are hoarded like never before”, explains Uwe Klaas, technician at “De Kaminbauer”. According to him, the demand for wood-burning stoves has also increased enormously since the start of the war in Ukraine and production has already been blocked for weeks. “Availability is currently very limited. We have several manufacturers who could not deliver until next year”.
Like other craft professions and industry, stove makers have delivery issues, which further delays order processing. This does not only concern imported parts, many of which are from China. Due to high demand and personal covid-related difficulties, fireplace stoves made in Germany and sold in Luxembourg are also affected by delivery problems.
The demand for fuel, here wood chips from Gieweler Holzknacker, is constantly growing.
Photo: Marc Wilwert
Wood-burning stoves have long been popular in Luxembourg because they provide ‘comfortable’ heat. But at the same time, they can also be a source of fine particles. But this does not seem to be a priority for customers at the moment. “In general, wood-burning stoves can only be used anyway if the emission limit values and minimum yields set by Grand-Ducal regulation are respected. “, explains Uwe Klaas. These emission limit values differ depending on whether or not the stove is connected to the heating circuit, and they depend on the power they supply.
“In addition, depending on the age of the stove or in the case of an open chimney, it is possible to add filters and thus reduce pollution by fine particles”. In addition, the new stoves today would be much more efficient. “Customers notice that with a new model, they use significantly less wood,” continues Uwe Klaas.
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