North American wood chip price report launched

Jan. 6, 2011, Houston, TX – International
energy pricing agency Argus has launched North American wood chip assessments.
This expansion into U.S. and Canadian wood chip pricing complements Argus'
coverage of U.S. wood pellet prices and its broader European biomass
indexation.

The United States and Canada are two of the
world's largest producers and exporters of wood chips, which are increasingly
used to fuel power plants and district heating systems, alone, with wood
pellets, or co-fired with coal. Growing demand from the North American market
has prompted Argus' recent decision to provide weekly industrial wood chip
price assessment.

Prices for new delivery locations include
fob and cif assessments for metric tonne and short ton values. Including cif
and fob delivered values to terminals that often serve as export facilities
reflects the increased importance of these locations as sources of wood chips
for both export and domestic North American markets. Publishing prices in
dollars per short ton as well as dollars per metric tonne reflects trade in
both export and domestic markets.

The new prices are for cargoes loading at
and shipments delivered to:

• Portland, Oregon (includes Longview)
• Tacoma, Washington
• Vancouver, British Columbia
• Mobile, Alabama
• Morehead City, North Carolina
• Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia

Wood chip and pellet price assessments are
published in Argus Biomass Markets, a weekly report that provides market
commentary, news, and analysis of power generation economics. Specifications
for wood chips and wood pellets are listed in the methodology for Argus Biomass
Markets.