04/18/16   Billion Dollar Pulp Mill South Arkansas Or Mississippi?

According to a report in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette over the weekend, Mike Preston, executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, a Chinese company, Shandong Sun Paper will choose from two sites, one in Arkansas and one in Mississippi.

The company said in November it wanted to build the mill in South Arkansas. It said at that time it expected to select a site by
May 1. 

Preston says he thinks incentives from the two states will be comparable, he said he believes it's going to come down to availability of timber, logistics and shipping. Preston thinks the site will be selected this summer. He says he believes Arkansas has the upper hand when it comes to timber.

The mill's production capacity would be 700 thousand tons of pulp a year, which means it would need to harvest 3 million tons of timber annually.