S.C. Port of Georgetown Wins 20-year Contract

South Carolina’s Port of Georgetown will gain new ship calls later this year as a result of a 20-year contract with Carolina-Pacific, a producer of wood briquettes used as a renewable energy source that will begin manufacturing and exporting product from the port.

The South Carolina State Ports Authority said Wednesday it signed a 20-year contract with Carolina-Pacific that has two five-year renewal options.

The first shipment of 6,000 metric tons of briquettes is scheduled for export to Europe in October. Carolina-Pacific plans to move approximately 66,000 metric tons in its first year of operation at the port.

Carolina-Pacific will initially occupy more than 100,000 square feet of warehouse space at the port to support manufacturing and exporting the wood briquettes, which are used in power generation as an eco-friendly substitute or supplement to coal.

Wood pellets and briquettes are becoming a high-demand commodity overseas due to requirements that member countries of the European Union generate 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

John B. Kern, chairman and CEO of Carolina-Pacific said that the operation will use South Carolina-sourced Southern Yellow Pine in the on-site production of the briquettes and in the transport of switchgrass grown in the I-95 corridor.

Georgetown got an appropriation of $1 million for maintenance dredging of its 27-foot authorized channel in the Energy & Water Appropriations bill approved by the U.S. House earlier this month and adopted by the Senate version of the bill.

Contact Peter T. Leach at pleach@joc.com.