E-Pellets acquires US mill for wood pellets

Waycross-headquartered E-Pellets has acquired the formerly shuttered Louisiana Pacific OSB mill in Athens, Georgia for $13 million (€9.6 million), with plans to convert it into a wood pellet production plant.

It is estimated that the new plant will manufacture around 450,000 tonnes of wood pellets a year. These pellets would be exported to the European Union for use as a coal alternative in power plants.

E-Pellets has a long-term port agreement with Georgia Kaolin Terminal (GKT), which provides E-Pellets sufficient port capacity to export up to 1.35 million tonnes per year of wood pellets through the port facility in Savannah, Georgia. E-Pellets previously purchased another underperforming production facility in Nahunta, Georgia and is expanding the production volume. All of the wood pellets are contracted to be sent to European power producers.

'We are going to focus on executing our build-out programme, and will evaluate developing other sites under option,' says E-Pellets CEO Doug Albrecht. 'We have...supporting capital partners, customers, vendors and suppliers and we hope to grow with all of them.'