Pike County made statewide news last week with the announcement of a new plant bringing 36 jobs when it opens in 2027.
The news did leave a few questions. For one, the company reportedly will spend $135 million to build its facility in the Metro-Pike Industrial Park on Highway 51 in Magnolia. Some have already asked why such a large investment will create only 36 jobs.
It’s a fair question. I don’t have an answer, but will hazard a guess that as technology becomes more capable and presumably more expensive, fewer employees are needed.
In a perfect world, we would be getting 150 or 200 jobs, but 36 new ones are nothing to ignore, especially when the average salary is going to be $85,000 a year.
Do the math and it says the new plant’s annual payroll will be $3.06 million. That is a healthy number.
Of course, this leads to another question: Will local residents be qualified for those jobs? Hopefully so.
Hopefully the new plant’s managers won’t feel compelled to bring in a bunch of workers from outside this area to get going.
Hopefully planning has already begun to get the local Work Force Training Center ready for any new skills the plant’s employees will need to learn.
Those are good questions. But there’s one that’s even more relevant.
What in the world is metallurgical-grade biocarbon?
I never was the best science student, but I’ll try to follow up on what the press release about the plant said.
The new company, TerraForge Biocarbon Solutions, will turn wood products into a substitute for coal. This substitute will be used in the production of steel and similar products.
Coal contains a lot of carbon, and steelmakers are trying to use less of it, presumably for environmental reasons.
TerraForge’s plant will take wood chips and other timber by-products from its partner, Weyerhaeuser, and heat them in an oxygen-free process that breaks down the material into hydrogen gas, water and pure carbon.
The carbon will be produced as a solid that can be used in place of coal in steel manufacturing. Because this carbon is coming from trees that absorbed it as they grew, the process is considered “carbon negative,” meaning it removes more carbon from the atmosphere than it adds.
Got all that? Good, because there will be a test in Wednesday’s paper. Just kidding.
Scientific stuff aside, a great thing about this project is that it checks so many of the boxes Pike County offers in economic development.
First, we have enviable transportation assets. A railroad and an interstate run right through Pike County, and many of us sometimes forget how valuable both of those can be. Especially when companies want to use one or both to move their products.
The TerraForge plant will be right across the road from Weyerhaeuser’s facility, and a rail spur will be extended to the new site.
Next, we have trees. By the tens of thousands, if not more.
You want wood by-products? We’ve got them. Anybody who has ever driven past the Weyerhaeuser plant surely has seen the circular stack of lumber, probably 30 or 40 feet tall most of the time, waiting to be sent into the mill. TerraForge will never lack for wood scraps to put through its carbon process.
Perhaps the best thing about this announcement is that Pike County competed for this plant against many markets — and won. Finally, somebody didn’t discount a rural, small-town area. TerraForge was willing to give us a chance.
We’ve gotten a new industry, not an existing one that has decided to expand. While both types are economic builders, and studies say most job growth comes from existing businesses, there is something positive when a new company comes to town.
It sounds like a big win for Pike County. Let’s hope so.
