Southwood Fibre’s woodchip export proposal ‘missing link’ for Tasmania’s southern forests

By Damian McIntyre
ABC News, Australia
November 15, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

A proposed $42 million export facility for woodchips in southern Tasmania is the missing link in the rebuilding of the sector, the forest industry has said. Southwood Fibre has lodged a development application with the Huon Valley Council for the facility at Strathblane, near Dover, which could create 145 jobs. Currently bulk wood products from the state’s south are trucked to an export facility at Bell Bay in northern Tasmania, where the product is processed and shipped to export markets. The proposal would see Southwood Fibre process certified plantation forests at the existing Southwood processing facility before being transported on forestry roads to a purpose built loading facility at Strathblane, and then packed into vessels for export. The chief executive of Southwood Fibre, James Neville-Smith, said it could generate $55 million of economic activity every year.

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