The drive to establish a major pulp mill in Scotland has reached ‘an exciting stage’, it was revealed at a conference to mark the first anniversary of the Scottish Forest Industries Cluster (SFIC).
Ed Gillespie, regional director of Scottish Enterprise Grampian, revealed that the conclusions of a pre-engineering study on the feasibility and viability of the project were ‘basically very good’. The venture would now be discussed with top pulp mill operators around the world ‘to see if we can find an equity partner’, he said. ‘There is at least a 50/50 chance this project will become real in the years to come.’
According to a previous SFIC statement, several sites have been provisionally identified for a pulp mill capable of consuming 2 million tonnes of domestic timber per year.
Outgoing SFIC leadership group chairman Sandy Brownlie and forestry minister Allan Wilson praised the cluster’s progress in the proposed development of a Centre for Timber Engineering at Edinburgh’s Napier University.
