Thunder Bay businessman Ed Fukushima is hoping for a spring launch of a wood pellet manufacturing operation in Atikokan.
“March is our optimistic target if everything goes absolutely right,” said Fukushima, who together with business partners Larry Levchak, Tere McDonald and Doug Chadwick, have formed Atikokan Renewable Fuels. The proposed operation is on the site of the former Fibratech mill, an oriented strandboard (OSB) plant, which went into receivership in 2007.
The mill was acquired this year by Fukushima and his partners. Construction crews were removing the OSB equipment in November and retrofitting the building to accommodate special machinery now on order. The company has spent close to $10 million on the project so far.
Fukushima is also awaiting word from the government on securing the wood allocation for the plant, estimated at 120,000-cubic metres. But he also has plans to buy fibre on the open market with some deals already in place. There are some upcoming agreements with multiple First Nation communities as well.
With a targeted annual pellet production of 140,000 tonnes, the Atikokan operation would create 40 plant jobs and 100 to 150 in spinoff forestry jobs.
But those numbers could easily double with the company's more ambitious plans to establish three or four pellet operations across northwestern Ontario.
“Atikokan is only of multiple pellet locations that we're going to build,” said Fukushima. He also has plans to be manufacture pellet machines in Thunder Bay by next spring.
Fukushima and his partners are owners in a group of Thunder Bay companies that include MGM Electric, Mahan Electric and Automation Now.
They have a separate U.S. business in Park Falls, Wisc., called Renewable Densified Fuels, which makes wood pellets from sawmill residue.
