Weyerhaeuser told investors in August that it is “exploring 7-10 sites” for plants that turn wood into biocarbon, a coal substitute for steelmaking. The company owns timberland across the South, including North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina.
The plants go to the wood. Weyerhaeuser’s presentation describes co-locations at its own sawmills and greenfield sites near its timberlands, which makes this one of the few site searches where rural counties are the natural candidates.
The first plant is already committed in Mississippi, and its numbers show what the next county would be competing for.
The Weyerhaeuser Aymium Venture
Weyerhaeuser and Aymium formed a joint venture, TerraForge Biocarbon Solutions, in December 2025. The companies say it will produce 1.5 million tons of biocarbon a year at full scale.
Biocarbon replaces coal in iron, steel, silicon, ferro-alloys and other metals production, according to the companies. It is made from wood fiber through what they call a combustion-free process.
The August presentation says reaching scale could take up to 20 or more biocarbon processors, with the potential for more than 7 million tons of fiber delivered a year.
That fiber demand is the part landowners, loggers and existing mills notice first, and it arrives whether or not the plant lands in their county.
The First Plant
The first facility sits beside Weyerhaeuser’s lumber mill in McComb, Mississippi, and is expected online in 2027. The state places the project in nearby Magnolia, in Pike County, at the Metro-Pike Industrial Complex.
The Mississippi Development Authority announced the project in December 2025 at more than $100 million.
The Mississippi Business Journal reported the same project this month at $135 million. Neither figure has been retracted, so a county comparing projects should carry both.
Both accounts give the same job figure, 36, and the September report puts the average salary near $85,000. The state supported the project through its Mississippi Flexible Tax Incentive program and infrastructure improvements.
The building houses 2 biocarbon processors. Weyerhaeuser’s chief executive, Devin Stockfish, said the plant would “generate new demand for fiber in the region,” supporting the company’s McComb operations.
What the Site Has to Do
Fiber comes first. A processor needs a steady supply of wood within trucking distance, which is why the company is looking at its own mills and at land near its own forests.
Weyerhaeuser lists 6.6 million acres of southern timberland in its presentation, spread across a region that includes North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina. Its southern mills include plants in Greenville and Plymouth, North Carolina.
The first plant also shows the scale of the real estate. It sits in an existing county industrial park, not on a megasite, which puts this search within reach of places that could never compete for an assembly plant.
Beyond fiber and a building, the package that won Mississippi was state incentives and public infrastructure improvements. The company has not published acreage, power or water requirements.
What It Means for Counties
Counties with a Weyerhaeuser mill or large Weyerhaeuser timber holdings are the strongest candidates, and they can prepare without waiting for a call. The useful work is knowing which industrial sites near the mill have power, water and truck access, and what the tax base would gain.
The first test is quieter than a site visit. It is whether the local fiber supply can feed another processor without bidding wood away from a mill the county already has, and that is a question a county forester or an extension office can answer before a company ever asks.
Sources
- Weyerhaeuser, Investor Presentation, August 2026, Form 8-K exhibit 99.1, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
- Weyerhaeuser, “Weyerhaeuser and Aymium Enter Agreement to Rapidly Scale Biocarbon Market,” December 11, 2025.
- Mississippi Development Authority, “TerraForge Biocarbon Solutions locating operations in Magnolia,” December 11, 2025.
- Mississippi Business Journal, “$135 Million Plant Coming to Pike County,” September 11, 2026.
Cover photo: Coal power plant near Portage, Wisconsin. Photo by Wikideas1, via Wikimedia Commons.
