Georgia, the United States’ largest exporter of timber products and one of the world’s biggest producers of pulp, is betting on higher-value mass timber construction and sustainable aviation fuels to plug a hole left by the collapse of its paper and pulp sector. But for the loggers, truckers and landowners, that bet needs to pay off…and fast.
When International Paper closed its mills in Liberty and Chatham counties last year, regional demand fell by 3 million tonnes, and nearly 1,655 jobs disappeared seemingly overnight. Pulpwood that fetched US$15–16 a tonne before the closures now sells for US$5–6. As a result, demand, as of January, is down 60 per cent.
As a result, the economics have turned against landowners.
The average pulpwood price before International Paper’s exit was US$1,125 per acre. Last month it was US$375. “It costs about $350 to get an acre replanted,” according to Shane Harrelson, owner of Ohoopee Land and Timber in Vidalia, who spoke to local media over the weekend. “So to timber land owners, it doesn’t seem to make sense anymore.”
It’s that kind of mathematics that brought Georgia’s timber leaders to a summit in Midway — looking for markets that paper and pulp can no longer provide.
Al Williams, state representative and Liberty County Development Authority Chair, said debt is pushing some to bankruptcy. “It’s devastating. If you own $2 million worth of equipment and you’re not hauling any logs… That’s scary.”
Joe Hopkins, CEO of Toledo Manufacturing and a landowner, was blunt. “We’re barely breaking even.” Whilst Steve Strickland, vice president of Beach Timber Inc. and owner of two pole mills, watched raw material supply evaporate.
“If you have 1,000 trees in that stand of timber, about 10% of that is going to be straight enough to make poles out of,” he said. “The other 900 trees that aren’t being harvested don’t have a mill anymore, so nothing is being cut.” A third mill he owns sits closed. “With the market in such bad shape, we have no current plans to bring it back online without major capital investment.”
Harrelson — whose business sold only 5% of its wood to International Paper — was nearly sunk by the paper giant’s collapse anyway. His company was shifting a maximum of 30 loads in the first two weeks after the closure. “A year ago, I was selling 90 to 100 loads a week,” he said. “(But) if we were to sell under 40 loads a week for four to six weeks, we wouldn’t be able to keep going.”
But instead of despairing, Harrelson pivoted, harvesting mixed tracts of soft pine and hardwood across different species to reach different product markets. “It got him me back to 60 to 65 loads a week,” he said.
The December summit became as much a therapy session for embattled business owners as a venue for solutions. House Majority Leader Jon Burns, one of Georgia’s largest timber farmers, focused on the enormous opportunities in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) with local producers responding to new European mandates to progressively lift SAF content in aviation blends.
A Model T that’s been running for 90 years vs a brand-new F-250.
However, Burns was candid about many of the obstacles. Europe blocks chemically treated wood from American mills, he said, and the unstable tariff situation makes US wood uncompetitive. “SAF also competes against cooking oil and municipal waste for feedstock — Georgia doesn’t own this market outright.”
“We can support our existing businesses,” Georgia Forestry Commission executive director Tim Lowrimore told state lawmakers. “But we also have the capacity to do more. To get where we want to be, you, as state leaders, have to be committed.”
Mass timber was another idea that gained traction. According to Byrnn Grant, CEO of LCDA, it’s more eco-friendly than steel or concrete, and far more durable than particleboard. Whilst Patrick Shay, architect from Gunn Meyerhoff Shay Architects, told the room that timber-based floor slabs can remove the need for a concrete pour, cutting time and cost.
“Georgia is uniquely positioned,” Marshall Thomas, president of F&W Forestry Services, recently told a state Senate study committee. “We can add jobs and tax base and position Georgia as a leader in the transition to a green economy.”
Amongst the roadblocks is the age of machinery and its equivalent. Seven of Georgia’s eight remaining pulp mills were built before 1961. “Brazil, China, and Indonesia are building brand new, state-of-the-art mills, and we’re running mills built in 1936,” one figure said.
“It’s a Model T that’s been running for 90 years vs to a brand-new Ford F-250.”
