An annual barometer of the energy-from-waste sector has revealed more than half of plant operators currently view the sector’s prospects as good.
The research, complied by consultancy ecoprog for EfW trade association CEWEP, records the views of EfW plant operators and businesses supplying them.
Published on 25 June the results showed 52% of plant operators considered the current market good against only 9% who thought it was poor, while 39% said satisfactory.
Last year’s barometer found only 23% of those surveyed considered the market good, while 66% said satisfactory and 11% poor.
In total 50% of suppliers to the EfW market in 2015 considered the market satisfactory, while 18% considered it poor and 32% considered it good.
The figures were a marginal improvement on 2014’s report where 56% of respondents said the market was satisfactory, 22% good, 19% poor, and where 3% declined to answer.
The report also found 50% of suppliers said their order backlog was too small, the same percentage as in 2014’s report.
This year no EfW plant reported its utilisation as being too low. While 76% of people said their facility was currently reaching a "comparatively high" plant utilisation, the rest reported sufficient usage. In 2014 only 49% said demand was comparatively high, 47 % sufficient, 2% too low and 2% did not answer.
Researchers also found 60% of operators reported demand in the spot market for waste incineration had improved while only 2% of those questioned thought it was worse than 12 months ago. The rest considered that it had remained level.
Last year only 17% of people thought it had improved, while 68% said no change, 13% said it was worse and 2% did not answer.
The sector revealed ongoing concerns about stricter efficiency goals expected under the revision of the waste incineration Best Available Techniques Reference Document (BREF). Less than 20% of respondents thought the specifications would not to be tightened considerably after negotiations at EU level are completed.
Europe remains the most important market according to the survey, although 95% of participants were from the region with the rest coming from Asia.
