An industrial company is establishing operations in Greenwood County to convert forest matter into wood pellets. Portucel, S.A. is investing $110 million to open a manufacturing facility in Greenwood, that’s expected to create 70 new jobs.
Portucel is an integrated forest, pulp, paper and energy company and is currently Europe´s largest producer of uncoated wood free paper. It has total paper capacity of 1.5 million tons/year and eucalyptus pulp capacity of 1.3 million tons. Its activities are based at three large-scale production mills in Portugal which reportedly have state of the art technology and are a benchmark for quality in the sector.
As of this September the company achieved record paper output, as its year over year sales volume saw an increase of three percent, to 1.147 million tons. Portucel’s facility in Greenwood County will be located in the Emerald Road Industrial Corridor and is expected to have a production capacity of 460 thousand tons per year once it is fully operational.
Hiring is expected to begin in January.