A new South Carolina wood pellet plant will bring a $110 million investment and 70 new jobs by opening a new manufacturing facility in Greenwood County. Portugal-based Portucel, S.A., will open a facility along U.S. Hwy. 246 near FujiFilm, USA.
Portucel is an integrated forest, pulp, paper and energy company and is currently Europe´s largest producer of uncoated wood free paper. It has total paper capacity of 1.5 million tons/year and eucalyptus pulp capacity of 1.3 million tons. Its activities are based at three large scale production mills in Portugal which have state of the art technology and are a benchmark for quality in the sector. Portucel is listed in Euronext, a pan-European stock exchange. The company’s long term majority shareholder is focused on industrial assets.
“The Portucel Group is very pleased to announce the construction of its new, state-of-the-art wood pellet facility in Greenwood, S.C. ,” said Portucel Soporcel Group CEO Diogo da Silveira in a press release. “Our facility will provide a renewable, sustainable source of energy for many thousands of electricity consumers for years to come, as well as jobs to many South Carolinians. We are extremely grateful to Gov. Haley, the S.C. Department of Commerce and the County of Greenwood for the warm welcome they have given our team during the lengthy evaluation and feasibility process through which this project matured. We are confident that we have found the right partners in South Carolina and that together we can provide a steady source of safe, reliable and renewable energy for the 21st century.”
The Portucel Group accounts for more than three percent of Portugal’s tangible exports. As of September 2014, the company achieved record paper output, as its year over year sales volume saw an increase of three percent, to 1.147 million tons. Portucel’s facility in Greenwood County will be located in the Emerald Road Industrial Corridor and is expected to have a production capacity of 460 thousand tons per year once it is fully operational.
From Greenwood Today: https://gwdtoday.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=27&ArticleID=32440