Los Angeles clean energy firm Rentech to acquire Weyerhaeuser's mothballed Wawa, Ontario, OSB mill and Atikokan Renewable Fuels' Atikokan, Ontario, particleboard mill for conversion to wood pellet facilities
Wendy Lisney
LOS ANGELES
,
May 3, 2013
(Industry Intelligence Inc.)
–
Weyerhaeuser Co. is to sell its mothballed OSB mill in Wawa, Ontario, to clean energy firm Rentech Inc., the forest products company confirmed today.
Los Angeles-based Rentech revealed the deal in a May 2 press release, stating that it had exclusive rights to acquire the Wawa mill from Weyerhaeuser at a fixed price. The press release also stated that Rentech had an agreement to buy a former particleboard mill in Atikokan, Ontario, from Atikokan Renewable Fuels.
Rentech said it planned to convert both mills to wood pellet production, noting that both had "significant existing reusable infrastructure."
A spokesperson for Federal Way, Washington-based Weyerhaeuser confirmed today by e-mail to Industry Intelligence Inc. that the company has an agreement to sell the Wawa mill to Rentech. Closed indefinitely in 2007, the Wawa mill had a rated annual OSB production capacity of 470 million sq. ft. when it was operational. The sale of the mill to Rentech will leave Weyerhaeuser with six OSB mills in the U.S. and Canada with a total rated annual production capacity of 3 billion sq. ft., according to Weyerhaeuser's most recent annual report.
Thunder Bay-based Atikokan Renewable Fuels bought the former Fibratech Manufacturing Inc. particleboard facility from receivers KPMG in February 2009. Atikokan Renewable Fuels President Ed Fukushima, known in the region at the time as the owner of MGM Electric, said at a press conference that he planned to produce high-energy densified pellets as an alternative to coal and pledged to invest C$15 million in converting the plant to wood pellet production.
The primary sources of this article are a press release issued by Rentech, Los Angeles, on May 2, 2013 and IndustryIntel archives.
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