OREANDA-NEWS. October 29, 2014. German Pellets GmbH has presented its Group Financial Report for the first half of 2014 and confirmed its preliminary consolidated net earnings figures.

As of June 30, 2014, German Pellets generated consolidated sales of Euro 260.6 million (+10% year over year growth). Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) improved to around Euro 25 million in the first half of 2014 from Euro 18.8 million in the previous year’s period, as the company said in the press release received by Lesprom Network.

The divergence to the preliminarily published EBITDA figure is due to the amended recognition of current payments for operations at the US plant in Woodville, Texas. Earnings before taxes also developed positively, rising from Euro 4.7 million to Euro 8.3 million, while net income surged from Euro 1.9 million to Euro 5.1 million.

The key growth and profit driver was the launch of the first US plant, located in Woodville, Texas, that started operations in 3Q 2013. Overall, the wood pellet market has grown in nearly all Western European marketsdespite the mild winter. This market growth is chiefly attributable to the persistently high level of fossil fuel prices. German Pellets plans to launch production of the second US plant in in Urania, Louisiana, at the end of this year.

“We will be further pursuing our course of expanding US capacities”, commented Peter H. Leibold, Managing Partner of German Pellets GmbH. To access new stages in the value chain, German Pellets is examining options to build up sawmills and sorting capacities at the US sites.
German Pellets plans to further expand its sales network in Europe in the second half of the year. Existing sales capacities have already been expanded. To further boost its sales activities in Germany, the company acquired as of September 1, 2014 the wood pellet business from Michael Wasler GmbH, known under the “Munchenpellets” brand, which has a well-established customer base in the Greater Munich region.

Furthermore, German Pellets is in an ongoing dialogue with European energy players interested in converting their power plants to use wood pellets, as well as with wood pellet industrial plant operators of medium-sized boilers in the market for business and industrial customers. Here, the company recently concluded a ten-year fuel supply agreement with a German combined heat and power (CHP) plant.

German Pellets currently expects to maintain its growth course in the second half of the year. The world’s leading producer and trader of wood pellets expects demand to pick up significantly in the fourth quarter. This is due to the mild winter at the beginning of this year, which led existing customers and new installations to postpone stockpiling to the second half of the year. For the financial year as a whole, German Pellets has budgeted consolidated sales of around Euro 550 million.

German Pellets is a German production company based in Wismar, Germany. The company produces various kinds of wood pellets.