German wood pellet price rises 6.2% to €454.21 per tonne in September

The average price of wood pellets in Germany rose to €454.21 per tonne in September 2026, an increase of 6.2 percent on the previous month, according to sbz-online.de, which publishes the monthly price series compiled by the Deutsches Pelletinstitut (DEPI). The September level is 12.5 percent above the 12-month average of €403.63 per tonne and 35.6 percent higher than in September 2025, when DEPI recorded €335.04 per tonne.

The report describes the increase as unusually pronounced for the summer months, when buyers normally refill storage ahead of the heating season at seasonally softer prices. The same report gives the comparison base for the 6.2 percent rise as July 2026 in its main text and as the preceding month in its summary.

Sawdust supply is the binding constraint

DEPI attributes the increase in part to the currently lower availability of sawdust, the most important raw material for pellet production. Weak construction activity has markedly reduced cutting volumes at sawmills, and less sawing means fewer residues reaching pellet plants. At the same time, further costs including personnel and transport have risen, according to DEPI.

The mechanism is important for buyers and traders because it sits outside the heating market. Sawdust is a by-product: pellet output follows lumber production rather than pellet demand, so higher pellet prices do not by themselves pull more raw material into the system. A recovery in feedstock availability depends on construction activity picking up.

Heat cost and the comparison with heating oil

Heat generated from pellets bought at the September DEPI price costs 9.08 cents per kilowatt-hour. The report cites a comparison figure of 6.70 cents per kilowatt-hour for August 2025. Even after the increase, pellets retain a price advantage of roughly 48 percent over heating oil purchased at current levels, on a comparison basis that applies an annual efficiency of 1.0 relative to the calorific value.

According to the report, the current price level lies above that of the past two years. That combination — a widening gap to fossil heating fuels but a rising absolute cost — shapes both the running costs of installed boilers and the payback calculation for new pellet heating systems.

What the DEPI series measures

The DEPI pellet price has been published monthly since 2011, and until June 2020 was issued by the Deutscher Energieholz- und Pellet-Verband (DEPV). It denotes the average German price for one tonne of ENplus A1 quality wood pellets at the respective purchase volume, including delivery within a 50-kilometre radius, all ancillary costs and VAT, reported nationwide and for three regions. DEPV separately publishes a net pellet price for supply contracts.

• The headline national figure refers to a purchase volume of 6 tonnes.
• Separate conditions are reported for larger volumes of 26 tonnes.
• Regional differences are published alongside the national average.
• The 12-month average of €403.63 per tonne is not issued by DEPI; it is calculated by the TGA+E editorial team as the arithmetic mean of the reporting month and the eleven preceding months.

Current levels against the 2021-2022 spike

The present level remains well below the peak of the last energy crisis. A strong upward move began at the start of the 2021/22 winter: in October 2021 the DEPI price for a 6-tonne delivery stood at €248 per tonne, still within the customary range, then jumped to €267 per tonne in November 2021 and €303 per tonne in December 2021. Conventional fuels and raw materials had already become significantly more expensive before that.

Following the start of Russia's war against Ukraine at the end of February 2022, the DEPI pellet price stayed above €500 per tonne from July 2022 to December 2022. The highest 6-tonne delivery price on record was reported for September 2022 at €763.76 per tonne. Measured against that, September 2026 at €454.21 per tonne sits closer to the pre-crisis trajectory, but the year-on-year move of 35.6 percent shows the raw material side tightening again for reasons unrelated to gas or oil markets.