Why Euro pallets are scarce here
Euro pallets arrive in North America as a by-product of imports. They come in loaded with European goods and then sit, because almost nothing shipping out of the United States is palletised on a 1200 by 800 footprint by default.
That means the domestic supply is a function of European import volume, not of domestic demand. When imports slow, the used Euro pool tightens within weeks, and no amount of local sorting capacity changes that.
What drives price
Three things. Import volume, as above. The exchange-pool economics in Europe, which determine whether it is worth repatriating empties. And the strength of the US dollar, which quietly changes whether shipping empty pallets east makes sense.
None of those are things a pallet yard controls. What we can do is tell you honestly when a market is tight, rather than quoting a price we will have to revise.
When you actually need branded EPAL stock
If the pallet is going into a European exchange pool, you need genuine branded stock and there is no substitute. If a customer's audit specifies EPAL, likewise.
If the pallet is going one way to a European customer who will scrap or absorb it, a compliant block pallet of the same dimensions is often perfectly acceptable and considerably cheaper. Ask your receiver which case applies. Half the time nobody has ever asked them.
The grade vocabulary
Euro grading has its own language. 'A' or 'Euro 1' is light use, bright wood, no visible repair. 'B' or 'Euro 2' is used, possibly repaired, structurally perfect, darker. 'C' is functional but tired and generally refused by exchange pools.
For one-way export, B is almost always correct. Specifying A for a pallet that will be destroyed on arrival is one of the more common ways to overspend in packaging.
What we do when we cannot get them
We say so. Then we offer the alternatives: a compliant unbranded block pallet, a custom build to the same footprint, or a timeline when we expect stock. Sometimes the right advice is to wait three weeks.
An industry habit we dislike: quoting optimistic availability to win an order and then managing the disappointment later. We would rather lose the order and keep the relationship.