German Pellets announced plans this week to build its second wood pellet production facility in the United States. Urania, Louisiana will be the site of the new plant, which will have a capacity of 1.1 million tons of wood pellets per year. The plant is expected to bring 500 jobs to the Urania area, though there is not yet word on when construction will begin.
In a company statement announcing the new facility, German Pellets Group manager Peter Leibold stated, “Once again, we have chosen a site with well-established wood supplies and logistics.” Leibold’s statement referred to the robust supply of timber resources found throughout the Southeast and the infrastructure already in place from Georgia Pacific’s former operations at the site.
Meanwhile, production is slated to begin at German Pellets’ first US plant in Woodville, Texas, sometime this month. It was initially hoped the Woodville plant would begin production sometime during the third quarter of 2012, however, construction on the facility did not start until last November. The plant is expected to produce approximately 637,000 tons of wood pellets on an annual basis.
German Pellets plans to use the harbor in Port Arthur, Texas to ship pellets from both sites to Europe.