Arkansas site 1 of 2 finalists for $1.36B paper mill

A Chinese company will choose from two sites -- one in Arkansas and one in Mississippi -- to build a $1.36 billion pulp mill, Mike Preston, executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, said Thursday.

The company, Shandong Sun Paper Industry Joint Stock Co., said in November that it wanted to build the mill in south Arkansas. It said at the time that it expected to select a site for the mill by May 1.

Preston said he believes incentives from Arkansas and Mississippi likely will be comparable.

"It's really going to come down to availability of timber, logistics and shipping," said Preston, who added he expected a site would be chosen this summer. "From what we understand, we have the upper hand when it comes to timber."

The mill's production capacity would be 700,000 tons of pulp a year, which means it would need to harvest 3 million tons of timber annually.

-- David Smith

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