Inside this issue

Before a large industrial pellet producer got a little too big for the britches as they say in the U.S. South, catapulting the two-state area into uncertainty, the Carolinas were a perfect feedstock area for woody biomass sourcing and production of pellets. Not only is the region rich in standing timber, it has an incredibly healthy logging force and pro-business climate. It was easy to see, even with continued pressure from environmental groups, why North and South Carolina attracted investors and pellet plants. How funny things can change over the years.

One of the best things for the landowners and loggers in the area was the price-driven competition; pellet mills taking both roundwood and chips were a welcomed addition for an area that had previously relied on packaging/pulp-and-paper markets for their lower value timber and chips. But now, the assumed to be done-deal expansions of those pellet mills, and traditionally consistent pulp-and-paper markets, is turning into a frightful reality for those same loggers and landowners. It’s (almost all) going up in smoke.

Officials with the International Paper Co. mill at Georgetown, SC wasted no time after announcing on Halloween the imminent closure of the facility by the end of the year. On November 1, the mill took delivery of its last load of logs, blowing a huge hole in the local logging economy as the mill took up to 400 loads daily.

The more than 6,000 loads a month that the mill paid for helped support hundreds of loggers and their employees who worked in its procurement area. Local economic officials say the impact in the logging industry alone could be more than 1,000 jobs in addition to the 674 high-paying jobs lost at the mill.

The Georgetown facility had been a major direct and indirect employer for the regional timber industry since 1937. One local official estimated the plant also worked with and provided opportunities for more than 200 local and regional contractors and suppliers of all kinds. The Georgetown mill produced about 300,000 tons of fluff pulp annually as well as an amount of uncoated freesheet paper that was filling a sales contract that expires December 31.

Crad Jaynes, President & CEO of the South Carolina Timber Producers Assn., called the decision “heartbreaking.” And the significance of the move can hardly be understated. While the mill hasn’t run at full capacity in a while, he said, the thousands of loads still delivered there every month play a huge part in the regional timber economy.

“This changes the profile of the timber industry in this state,” Jaynes says, noting that he’s hearing of loggers that worked with the facility parking multiple crews immediately. It also comes on the heels of the WestRock plant closure in North Charleston.

Jaynes adds that with so much wood looking for a home, remaining markets are reducing cut-and-haul rates. “It’s a ripple effect that’s devastating for the whole supply chain in that area,” he adds.

But what if this nightmare can be pivoted into a dream situation for the right investor in a biochar plant, or even a utility willing to convert to co-firing pellets as Dominion Power has done in Virginia since 2013, or a sawmill adding co-generation to their site? Once again, the area’s growth-to-drain ratio is out of whack. Meanwhile there are a whole lot of highly skilled workers and motivated city-county-state governments looking to bring industry back to the area.