Sweetman Renewables Ltd, Media Release, 5 July 2021

Sweetman Renewables plans to expand its sawmilling operations to meet growing demand as the Australian construction boom plays out and the Hunter Valley’s only other sawmill get set to close its doors.

Chairman John Halkett said the Sweetman sawmill had a proud legacy, starting operation in 1921 and continuing to this day.

“With the imminent closure of the other hardwood sawmill in the region, because of urban ‘creep’ and related development pressures, the Sweetman Renewables sawmill will soon be the only hardwood sawmill between Sydney and Newcastle,” he said.

“This will afford Sweetman Renewables valuable commercial appeal.”

As a result of initiatives to move economy beyond the COVID pandemic, there is currently a building and construction boom across the country resulting in shortages of both labour and products, especially timber products.

“With frantic building and construction activity in Australia, and with building products in short supply, the Sweetman Renewables Hunter Valley sawmill is well-placed to expand production to supply some of the increasing demand for hardwood timber products across New South wales and in other states,”Mr Halkett said.

Sweetman Renewables already has advanced plans to expand sawmill production of high-quality timber products.

“We are confident about acquiring additional log supplies from sustainable forest management operations in the region,” Mr Halkett said.

All logs processed by the Sweetman Renewables sawmill will come from third-party certified forest operations or from areas with approved harvesting authorities issued by New South Wales Local Land Services.

When development proposals proceed, the Hunter Valley sawmill will be a significant operation for Sweetman Renewables.

The sawmill operations will support and be associated with other activities, including the acquisition, processing, logistics and transport of biomass for both export to bioenergy plants in Japan, local renewable energy consumption and for the production of syngas, green hydrogen and biochar.

“These are commercially attractive and exciting aspects of the Sweetman Renewables’ business model. Already testing is underway to verify the technical credentials of Sweetman Renewables’ ‘green’ biomass sourced from industrial and residential waste streams,” Mr Halkett concluded.