Chip market

[bilke_user]

Wondering if there's a market for hardwood chips or do we just tip them and let them rot?

 

[benedmonds]

Biomas companies pay us £12-£14 a ton for mixed wood chip from arb arisings..

[swinny]

33 minutes ago, benedmonds said:

Biomas companies pay us £12-£14 a ton for mixed wood chip from arb arisings..

Sound ok till you do the figures and its about 3.5-4 cube a ton then its peanuts and youve to load? 

[spuddog0507]

6 minutes ago, swinny said:

Sound ok till you do the figures and its about 3.5-4 cube a ton then its peanuts and youve to load? 

This is one thing i just cant work out, companys are selling chip wood in log form for around £45-£55 a tonne depending on it being hard/w or soft/w its then got to be loaded transported then unloaded and then chipped but for arb wast chip£12-£14 a tonne still got to be loaded and unloaded but no chipping process to go through and they pay jack shit for it ? some one some where is making some good money out of this game, and it aint the bloke who is supplying it ?.

[monkeybusiness]

Stobarts offered me £25 a tonne for whole tree chip recently for a pine plantation we are clearfelling (approx 300 tonnes), and we had to pay for the whole tree chipper for the day (circa £2k). 

Another firm have bought the chip for considerably more money and are supplying the chipper.... 

It’s a minefield!

[benedmonds]

17 minutes ago, swinny said:

Sound ok till you do the figures and its about 3.5-4 cube a ton then its peanuts and youve to load? 

Not many years ago we were paying to get rid or spread on the fields..

It's not going to make you rich but it easily pays for the loading..  We sell £3 or £4Ks worth a year.

 

I struggle to understand the wood chip market..

We have been paid:

£12 a ton for chip (we load)

£6 a ton for mixed arb arisings  (they supplied telehandler to load)

£23 a ton for beech logs (road side)

 

and I still struggle to see how driving lorries full of woodchip up and down the country makes sense.. 

[ESS]

11 minutes ago, spuddog0507 said:

This is one thing i just cant work out, companys are selling chip wood in log form for around £45-£55 a tonne depending on it being hard/w or soft/w its then got to be loaded transported then unloaded and then chipped but for arb wast chip£12-£14 a tonne still got to be loaded and unloaded but no chipping process to go through and they pay jack shit for it ? some one some where is making some good money out of this game, and it aint the bloke who is supplying it ?.

Very little arb chip goes direct to burners because of the inconsistency in chip size / moisture content. A lot of it gets taken back to depots , tipped , screened and blended , then hauled again to an end user. A lot of lower grade chip that doesn't make g30/50 spec is only realising £40-60 /t with sub 30% moisture. You don't get much haulage done for £15t nowadays , and in some cases there can be double that to get it to an end user.