New Northwest Pellet Mill Gains Approval Air quality officials recently issued a final notice and approval for an air quality permit at a new wood pellet manufacturing plant to be built by Pacific Northwest Renewable Energy (PNWRE) on a 60 acre site leased from the Port of Grays Harbor, Hoquiam, Wash. According to permitting documents, the 440,000 tons/year plant will operate three truck dumpers, a chips cleaning line, two wet hammermills, four dry hammermills, 12 pellet mills, five wood pellet storage silos, a covered conveyor system to deliver wood pellets to the adjace ..read more

Collins Sues PG&E Over Dixie Fire Collins Pine Co. and several affiliated companies have filed a lawsuit against Pacific Gas and Electric utility seeking compensation for property and business losses stemming from the Dixie Fire in July 2021, which was caused by PG&E’s equipment and negligent operations, according to the complaint.        The complaint, filed with the Superior Court of the State of California in the County of San Francisco, alleges that PG&E recklessly failed to repair and operate its electrical equipment, and failed to maintain an ..read more

Prairie Wood Products Closes Due To FS Transport Grant Dispute Claiming that a change in policy concerning the use of Forest Service grant money for transportation costs, Prairie Wood Products in Prairie City, Ore. suspended operations in March citing a disagreement with FS officials. Company officials are currently working with the FS to resolve the matter and get back to work. The mill received an FS Timber & Biomass Transportation grant from the FS in December 2023 with the understanding the grant would provide matching funds to help cover transportation  ..read more

May 2024 Cover: Bienville Lumber Has New Mill Flowing The new Bienville Lumber sawmill (i.e. Hunt Forest Products and Tolko Industries) is finding its groove in Taylor, La. See More Inside This Issue THE ISSUES: Not The Ending We Like To Write Obviously it’s not as personal to us as it is to the ownership, employees and families directly impacted, but the editors here at Timber Processing do take it personally, and feel their pain, when independent lumber operations announce they are going out of business. Unfortunately, it seems like such developments have picked up in frequency as ..read more

Two Rivers Lumber Plans Second Alabama Mill Two Rivers Lumber Co. plans to invest $115 million to build a state-of-the-art sawmill in Coosa County as the company’s second operation in Alabama. Demopolis-based Two Rivers Lumber has committed to creating 130 jobs at the new Alabama sawmill, which will specialize in the production of southern yellow pine dimensional lumber. Two Rivers was established by the McElroy family, owners of McElroy Truck Lines in Cuba, Ala., and Roy Geiger, owner of Sumter Timber in Jefferson, Ala. The company opened its first sawmill in Marengo County in 2017, with a ..read more

C&D Lumber Announces Closure Officials with C&D Lumber in Riddle, Ore. recently announced the closure of the mill as of May 2, becoming the fourth sawmill in western Oregon to announce a closure since the start of the year. A reduced crew will work to run the last of the log inventory through the kilns and planer mill after the May closure. The move affects 93 employees who will lose their jobs. Founded in 1890 in nearby Coos County and in its current location since the 1950s, the company had been in business 134 years. Nick Johnson, whose family has operated C&D through six gene ..read more

Southern Cypress Manufacturers Assn. Elects 2024 Officers Members of the Southern Cypress Manufacturers Assn. (SCMA) elected officers for 2024 at the association’s Annual Meeting on March 25, in Charleston, South Carolina. Truss Beasley of Beasley Forest Products (BFP) in Hazlehurst, Ga., was elected SCMA president. He joined BFP in 2014 and is currently serving as vice president of business development for the Beasley Group sawmills and flooring plants. Beasley earned a bachelor’s degree in finance and a master’s in business administration from Georgia Southern University. Mike Shook of Nor ..read more

Roseburg Names Tony Ramm Senior VP Of Manufacturing Roseburg is pleased to announce that Tony Ramm has accepted the role of Senior Vice President of Manufacturing, effective April 8, 2024. Ramm will drive an increased emphasis on the sustainable, long-term success of the manufacturing side of Roseburg’s wood products business. Ramm first joined Roseburg in May 2014 as plant manager at Riddle Plywood and moved through roles of progressive responsibility on the operations side of the business. He was named Vice President of Human Resources in June 2023, and was promoted to Senior Vice Preside ..read more

Georgia Ports Continues Container Expansion Georgia Ports Authority approved contracts totaling $65.6 million for container yard work at the Port of Savannah’s Ocean Terminal, a 200-acre facility just downriver from GPA’s main container port. The board approved three project components, including earth compacting to prepare the site to hold container stacks, removal of a former bridge pier and preliminary utility installation behind the wharf structure. The work will be funded through revenue bonds GPA issued in 2022. Previously approved upgrades at Ocean Terminal include the purchase of eig ..read more

Hilmer Andersson Goes With Valutec Swedish family-owned sawmill company Hilmer Andersson has invested 4 million Euros in wood dryers from Valutec, including a FB continuous kiln and three batch kilns. “Over the years we have developed more and more from a traditional sawmill to a further processing industry. This has meant increased quality requirements and with this investment we will increase the quality output on every piece,” says Nils Andersson, production manager Hilmer Andersson. Hilmer Andersson, which today saws 220,000 m3 (94MMBF) annually, will have a drying capacity of almost 30 ..read more