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Groundbreaking of Large Wood Pellet Plant to Create New Market
for First-Cutting Timber, Jobs in Manufacturing, Trucking and Harvesting
for Southwest Mississippi
Products to be Exported Overseas, Bringing International Wealth to Local Communities
Hazlehurst, Miss. – TheWall Street Journalrecently published a special report titled“Thousands of Southerners Planted Trees for Retirement: It Didn’t Work.” The sub-headline stated, “Too much pine and not enough saw mills spell years of depressed prices for plantations.”
U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) saw this problem coming years ago while serving as a Mississippi State Senator. Even then, she was meeting with timber and manufacturing company executives, encouraging them to find alternative uses for surplus wood.
Her words of encouragement have paid off. Beyond what they may have ever imagined, timberland owners in Southwest Mississippi are about to have new hope and a new market for their fiber—to have it manufactured into compressed wood pellets, shipped to overseas markets, and burned as fuel to generate electric power.
Alternative Energy Development-Copiah (AED-Copiah) today announced it has reached an agreement to sell 500,000 metric tons/year of wood pellets to North American Biomass (NAB). The pellets will be manufactured in a facility located in the Copiah County Industrial Park at Gallman, just outside of Hazlehurst, Miss., and sold under contract into overseas markets.
AED-Copiah intends to break ground on this new pellet mill before the end of 2018. Once fully operational, the Hazlehurst plant will create 60 full-time jobs and 200 ancillary jobs in timber harvesting and trucking.
“We are pleased with the development AED-Copiah has selected and look forward to a long, prosperous relationship,” said Christian Bach, NAB Chief Executive Officer. “Mississippi wood fiber is some of the most sustainable fiber in the Southeastern U.S. wood basket.”
The decision by AED-Copiah to locate in Southwest Mississippi wasn’t by accident. One of the founding partners, Gary Ogle, was in that meeting with Senator Hyde-Smith years ago, when she pointed out the amount of fiber available in the southwestern area of the state.
“The forestry industry in Mississippi prides itself for being able to use every part of every harvested tree. With first-cut trees, we have to think outside the box to find alternative uses for our wood fiber,” Hyde-Smith said. “I’m excited that this facility in Hazlehurst will provide an additional market for wood fiber grown right here in Southwest Mississippi. Pellet manufacturing will give
new life to this plant, support jobs, and strengthen the economy in this region. It is also a great example of collaboration working to build up Mississippi’s agriculture sector.”
Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant said, “Mississippi offers a skilled and dedicated workforce and a tax and regulatory climate that allows businesses to flourish. I am proud of those advantages and grateful to everyone who made today’s groundbreaking a reality.”
Arthur L. Evans, Jr., Executive Director of the Copiah County Economic Development District, stated,“This has been a long time coming, but today is a great day for the hard-working people of Copiah County, the Copiah County Board of Supervisors and the Copiah County Economic Development District. Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!”
According to Ogle, AED-Copiah founder and manager, the Hazlehurst mill will receive approximately 125 truckloads of softwood “first cutting” logs and 25 truckloads of softwood chips and residue per day to process into wood pellets – using 1 million tons of harvested fiber per year. The plant will operate 6.5 days per week, with 12 hours of downtime scheduled for maintenance each week, and will deliver 60 truckloads of wood pellets per day to a shipping port the company is currently developing in Vicksburg. From there, the pellets will move down the Mississippi River where they will be loaded onto large ships to their international destinations.
“This project would not be happening were it not for the leadership and assistance of Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, Governor Phil Bryant, and Arthur Evans and the Copiah County Board of Supervisors,” Ogle said. “They have all been extremely helpful, patient, and encouraging throughout our consideration of site selection.”
Hyde-Smith, who serves on the Senate Agriculture Committee, says she will continue to work on legislation to support Mississippi’s timber industry as Congress works on a new farm bill and 2019 appropriations bills. Timber ranks second among Mississippi’s agricultural commodities, contributing $1.39 billion value of production to the state’s economy in 2017.
