Company aiming
By Rod Thompson
for 2002 to build
Big Island
plywood mill
Star-BulletinHILO -- Tradewinds Forest Products hopes to start construction of a Big Island plywood mill by 2002, eventually creating up to 550 jobs, the company announced.
This week's announcement, following a visit by Tradewinds officials to Hawaii about two weeks ago, provides additional information on the company's plans to use timber from up to 40,000 acres of state and private land.
The state in June said it selected Tradewinds to harvest non- native timber from 12,000 acres of state land south of Hilo called the Waiakea Timber Management Area. Tradewinds is a joint venture of the Timber Exchange of Portland, Ore., and Quality Veneer & Lumber of Seattle.
Don Bryan, president of the Timber Exchange, said a location for the plywood mill has been narrowed to somewhere on the Hamakua Coast north of Hilo, but a site has not been selected.
The state previously put the cost of the mill at $20 million to $25 million. "It might be a little higher," Bryan said. "We found out some more things we have to do."
The company will make a range of products including construction, industrial, cabinet-grade and architectural plywood using eucalyptus, toon or Australian red cedar and Queensland maple, the announcement said.
The largest grower of eucalyptus on the Hamakua Coast is Hamakua Timber, backed by Prudential Timber Investments.
Bryan declined to comment on the possibility of buying timber from them.
The next step the company must take is complete an agreement to harvest from state lands, he said.
"This is not a troublesome process to me so far. The board (of Land and Natural Resources) is acting in very good faith," he said.
Later, the company must meet very strict federal clean air and water requirements to build the mill, he said.
Wood that can't be used for plywood or lumber will be turned into wood chips to be sold outside the state for paper pulp.
