Wooden pallet: Cost Trends in 2022

In 2021, any one of us has observed unprecedented price spike of the Euro pallet. In fact, this wooden support is gradually becoming as valued as the goods it carries. Today, if a second-hand pallet is negotiated around 18€, a new one can easily reach 28€.

If this past year, you have experienced an uncontrollable price increase, disruption in your supply chain or tensions with your carriers… Then, this article is for you.

Since this situation is expected to last in 2022, we can legitimately wonder: in which way the Euro pallet is becoming a strategic stake for your business?

Three major reasons can explain the pressure stressing the pallet market in Europe: 

A colossal price rise of raw materials and logs: + 46% of the CEEB* price index.

China is escalating its wood imports. Banning the felling of its own trees for the next 100 years, it is sourcing its supplies from Europe, which has seen its exports to this country jump by 44%: a financial windfall that is not without consequences for our economy.

Increased demand for new pallets, up 8% on the previous year, leading to a bottleneck effect.

Of course, more demand combined with less offer brings up rising prices, whose effects can be limited only by the economic laws of the competitive market.

What are the available solutions to curb this tension?

As the saying goes “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result”. How about changing our practices? Negotiating the price and diversifying the number of suppliers is not enough anymore. To be effective, we can no longer work in silos, nor can we ignore a true mastery of data.

• Which partners owe you pallets?
• How many pallets do your carriers owe you?
• Are you able to locate your inventory and available stocks?
• Is this information recorded in a simple excel spreadsheet?
• Do you follow common KPIs with your partners?
• Do you use a clear and univocal report to chase up your partners?

Purchasing Euro pallets is becoming a strategic issue, since it is crucial to ensure the delivery of your customers. The scarcity of this support can have serious consequences: rupturing production lines, damaging the customer experience quality, even reducing your turnover.

Take time to think about it.
You can also call on our experts to assist you.

👉 Our customers talk about it better than us, follow this link.

*CEEB price index

In its last mercurial published in february 2022, the CEEB indicate an increase in the pallet wood price index of 46.3% compared to N-1 (variation 2021-Q4 versus 2020-Q4)

The mission of the Centre d’Etudes de l’Economie du Bois is to observe the average prices charged by the wood industry at a national level. Each quarter, the CEEB publishes a “mercurial”, official price list, for timber (logs and sawn timber) and also for pallet wood.

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