Enviva facing significant financial losses

A spate of news articles have questioned the financial viability of Enviva, the world’s largest producer of wood pellets.

Enviva has ten manufacturing plants across the Southeast, with four in North Carolina, which includes their plant in Hamlet.

“Enviva reported a net loss of $85.2 million in the third quarter of this year, compared with an $18.3 million loss in the third quarter of 2022,” reports NC Newsline. “Even though the company sold more tons of wood pellets this summer, an “unfavorable pricing environment” led to a 50% drop in earnings.”

“The company’s stock price on Thursday was hovering around 80 cents, down 99% from its peak of $87 a share in April 2022,” reports StarNews Online in January. “Company officials have said a series of factors have combined to chop down the company even as it sells more wood pellets than ever to customers in the United Kingdom, continental Europe and Japan. They include collapsing prices for wood pellets, long-term contracts that lock Enviva into deals with customers at low prices, high interest rates that makes its loans more expensive to service, and operational issues at some of its plants.”

“At this time, we have no further comment beyond the information that is already publicly available on our IR website,” shared the communications team for Enviva Hamlet. They did not answer any questions regarding how the financial woes will affect operations in Hamlet.

According to their website, Enviva Hamlet employs 80 full-time associates and creates an additional 180 jobs through logging, transportation and local service. Since the their start of commercial operations in June 2019, they have a production capacity of 600,000 metric tons per year. According to an article in Progress magazine, Enviva provides a tax base of $130 million in Richmond County.

In October of 2023, a Hamlet resident traveled to the White House to protest the presence of the biomass industry in her community.

“In my community of Hamlet, North Carolina, people are sick. They have asthma, headaches, nosebleeds, respiratory issues,” said Debra David of Concerned Citizens of Richmond County. “Out of 12 families in my neighborhood, eight families have asthma pumps and nebulizers. That should not be so, Mr. Biden. I say enough is enough. We would like for Mr. Biden to shut down the biomass industry. If not that, at least stop subsidizing them. Put stricter regulations on the pollution limits. Install air monitors in our communities so we can monitor air quality ourselves instead of relying on the bad actors who do the polluting and only tell us about air quality warnings after the fact. Invest in the communities, not in the industries.”

In December of 2022, Enviva partnered with the Sandhills Prescribed Burn Association and Milliken Advisors to sustainably thin the loblolly pine on over 500 acres of Hoke Community Forest in preparation for the establishment of a longleaf pine savanna.

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Reach Matthew Sasser at 910-817-2671 or [email protected] to suggest a correction.