Georgia-Pacific has been a part of the Clarendon County business community since May of 2010, with a fully operational plant since February 2013. After purchasing the Grant Forest Products facility, Georgia-Pacific invested $29 million over the next three years to add infrastructure, catwalks and safety features before going live to produce oriented strand board, or OSB.
Today, the plant is the largest OSB facility in the United States and the second largest plant in North America. Capable of producing 850 million square feet of OSB per year, the plant has the infrastructure in place to increase output to one billion square feet per year, although this would require a $20 million investment for additional equipment. To date, no plant has ever produced one billion square feet per year.
Locally, Georgia-Pacific employs 140 people who work in four rotating shifts round the clock. Most employees are from Clarendon County, and the company ensures it has very competitive pay rates, which ensures a very low employee turnover rate.
The Clarendon County facility strives to be very cost effective, which allows the company to keep prices competitive in a large market. They are currently investing in a new wax system, which will cut the cost of the current wax by 50%.
“We are very cost conscious here, and thanks to this team and everyone who works here, we are one of the best plants in the division,” said Tobey Elgin, the plant manager at the Clarendon County facility. “We have very low costs in spite of how big we are. We are probably in the top 12 of lowest cost producers of oriented strand board.”
To maintain cost standards, the plant uses every part of the logs they bring in, either for the OSB board or to create thermal energy for the processes. Each day, the plant uses 3,000 tons of logs. From log to finished OSB board takes four hours.
Georgia-Pacific no longer owns forest land, but the Clarendon plant does employ two full-time foresters. They work with local land owners and logging companies to teach sustainable forestry and best forest management practices. Georgia-Pacific ensures the loggers with whom they work use best practices for sustainable forestry.
“If you properly manage the land, you can provide income for years to come,” said Elgin. “Actually there are more trees growing today than there were 50 years ago.”
The company stays aware of environmental impacts over and above the use of the wood. Georgia-Pacific pays Southeastern Organic to remove the ash created when the bark is burned for thermal energy at the plant. This ash is then used in fertilizer products, rather than ending up in landfills. Georgia-Pacific also ensures they exceed the requirements for removing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the emissions released into the air.
The property is 978 acres, and the half-million-square-foot facility is heavily automated, with plans to expand the automation. Georgia-Pacific recently announced its plans to spend approximately $4 million to build a 30,000 square foot extension. This space would be primarily used for warehouse, although it will also allow for a new laminating area. The new lamination equipment will add the foil overlay for roofing purposes.
According to Elgin, the plant makes so much OSB per day that if they cannot turn the inventory within seven days, their current warehouse space is full. He asserts they are the largest plant but have the smallest warehouse. The new warehouse will have automatic guided vehicles to stack and store the finished product, which will increase employee safety and company productivity.
“We will be the very first building products facility that I know of who will begin to unload all of our bundles, stack them in the warehouse and pre-stage them all with robots,” said Elgin. “We are piloting the program. This facility is leading the program for all the other OSB facilities, and they will follow behind us.”
Implementation of the new automated guided vehicle program will begin in June, with an expected timeline to be fully functional in August.
While no new jobs will be created at the plant with the expansion, Clarendon County will still benefit through the increased manufacturing visibility, the increased tax base and the ability for local contractors to bid on and possibly be awarded contracts to help build the new $4 million extension.
