A U.K.-based company has set up shop in central Newfoundland with hopes of shipping wood fibres across the ocean and bringing hundreds of jobs to Botwood.
In an article that appeared in the CBC New, details of the proposal are emerging in the wake of news that an earlier proposal by a different company to set up a biofuel plant in the town will not go ahead. Bulk Logistics has set its sights on the 285,000 cubic metres of wood fibres once belonging to Abitibi, which fueled industry in Botwood for decades.
If it can reach a deal for the timber rights, the company will use local sawmills to process the wood and send it to international markets, including a plant in Wales.
The Welsh plant, operated by a company called Orphios, is expected to go online by late 2019 and will require 1.9 million tonnes of wood chips annually to operate.
If the project moves forward, Bulk Logistics would purchase shares in Harold Sheppard Limited, which operates a sawmill in nearby Point Leamington.
The company plans to increase sawmilling operations from one million board-feet per year to around seven to 10 million, and open a new sawmill on the Botwood highway.
The town would also see a log-sorting yard, a wood-chipping operation and ship the product out from its waterfront. The company projects 300-plus jobs within three to five years.