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Sorry, I don't know anything about the bond status.
Phillip
The meeting minutes from the Natchitoches Parish Port Commission's May Board meeting are available today. No new news on the project, but they are discussing the expansion of their Northport Tract. This is the Tract that Biomass is planning to construct their facility. Provides some warm and fuzzies that they feel the need to expand their land holdings. I imagine if Biomass was going away, they wouldn't need to plan on an expansion.
Phillip
He bought shares in his company, not BMSPF. I reread my post and realized it could be read either way.
Phillip
Weyerhausers CEO just bought 5,195 shares despite a sawmills being closed left and right. Maybe he's bullish for another reason . . . like biomass. I also noticed that they were at the biomass conference in Japan.
With the huge amount of fiber required for pellet plants their land holdings are probably one of the very few companies that can meet the demand.
Phillip
None that I know about. I'm keeping an eye out for press releases and meeting minutes. Only thing of interest is a lease agreement between the Port of Natchitoches and Terral RiverService, Inc. They are a freight/barge company. If one was to speculate you could ask how is BMSPF going to get their product out of the port. My understanding is that the offtake agreement with the US buyer is by rail, but any over seas buyers would likely be by barge.
Phillip
I hold shares with two different brokerages. Neither have done anything similar to what you're experiencing. At least not yet.
Phillip
Just need volume and news. Not necessarily in that order.
Phillip
Don't forget the desire to move the company to one of the major exchanges. Then again, we've been hearing it for years so I can't blame anyone for being skeptical. I just look at it from the perspective of projects I've seen in my industry that have taken 20 years to get off the ground. Even then, they are tiny in comparison with the amount of capital required to be raised by BMSPF. This will be a huge feat if they can sell all of the bonds.
Phillip
Volume is up also which is what I have really been waiting for. Price movements when only 1000 shares trade doesn't mean much. Then again we've all seen this before so I'm just waiting for the one time that tires to get some traction.
Phillip
I missed the end of May language. Thanks.
Phillip
Latest MD&A is out on Sedar. Not too much new, but a couple of quotes that I gleaned from it . . .
Not huge news but the Port's latest approved meeting minutes are out and they reference BMSPFs press release regarding bond approval. Nothing new in itself, but shows that they are still on the ports radar.
http://publicnoticeads.com/LA/search/view.asp?T=PN&id=350/4182019_25355422.htm
Phillip
Yep, I've seen that before. Definitely a concern, but last time they renewed it at the last minute.
You're right though, it will be interesting to see what comes to fruition in July. If anything.
Phillip
It should be in the iBox, but the iBox doesn't show on cell phones. Here's the link...
https://www.sedar.com
Phillip
But they file several times a year on Sedar. Last filling was 2/13/19.
Phillip
Could be. I've often thought the same thing. Who would finance a startup with no track record? Then again, our family is watching The Men Who Made America on the History Channel and people like Vanderbilt and Rockefeller came from nothing and eventually became the richest man in America.
I'll be there first to admit that I don't know the first thing about capital financing, but I am familiar with surety to secure repayment in the event of a default. The company says they will be paying for this surety which may be the mechanism required to satisfy bonds holders. Dunno.
Phillip
Maybe OCR can answer this one. I thought when he was moderator that he posted to the ibox that pink sheets don't need to file. After 20 years of not making money I can see a rationale for not spending more money on filling just to repeatedly say that you're still broke.
My wild guess is that the company intended at one time to raise capital though stock offerings and eventually realized that they couldn't issue enough shares at a penny each to fund much of anything. If my guess is true, when they came to that realization, being publicly traded probably became more of a nuisance than anything.
Phillip
The short answer is that they've been saying that they are going to build a plant for 20 years in a half dozen locations. I would have dismissed them completely and sold this stock a long time ago if it wasn't for circumstantial evidence outside of what the company says that leads me to believe that they're still working on it. They have plans drawn. They are in the Port minutes. They are getting tax exempt bonds from Louisiana. No one goes through the motions just for fun. Will they ultimately fail. Who knows. I call this my all or nothing stock. I will either lose everything or retire early.
As far as the article or map you mention, I don't know why they aren't listed. Could be that they know something we don't or they just don't take them seriously. Maybe they are only listing projects by already established companies. The Port of Baton Rouge gave them the boot because they didn't take them seriously. Perhaps the author of the map could be contacted.
Phillip
Only speculation, but my guess is that River Basin Energy is still involved in this venture and they will have some input on the fluidized bed reactor. Burns Energy Systems designed the burners and they will probably be giving the instructions on the burner system. In my industry, there is typically a O&M manual prepared by the contractor. In this case, I think I read somewhere that startup was going to take several months. Again, my guess is that since this has never been done anywhere before that there will be a lot of testing and optimization before an O&M manual is prepared. Eventually, I think they will be training local talent to operate the facility. Several paper plants in the area so I imagine there are technically inclined people around, but this will be new to everyone.
Phillip
Probably. The steel plant though could be a concern by competing with BMSPF for local labor. Timing wise hopefully we get off the ground first.
Phillip
A couple of new events for us conspiracy theorists . . . may be unrelated. . .
1) Port of Natchitoches meeting minutes indicate that there is a steel company looking to invest $1.7 billion to potentially open a facility (600 jobs) at the Port. BMSPF will need a lot of structural steel to construct their projects so I would be curious if this is a coincidence or something more.
2) Weyerhaeuser is restructuring $750 million in debt. I have long questioned whether they are the fiber supplier to BMSPF. Looks like their bonds were due in 2019, so this could be a coincidence also, but with their timing and timber holdings being "in the area" of our project, I have to wonder . . .
Phillip
I have a Google alert to notify me when news comes out with the term Biomass Secure Power. I get emails almost every day with market reports on the biomass boom. I ignore them because they want me to pay for them, but I find it interesting that this never used to happen. There's definitely more activity than there used to be.
Phillip
I would prefer a sell off to pick up more cheap shares. I still don't like my cost basis, but if the project comes to fruition I'm sure I'll quickly forget about it.
Phillip
And I messed up by not maintaining my standing "buy" order when the price drops to these levels. Then again, ask is only $0.006 so someone might be messing around trying to trigger panic selling. I hope it works.
Phillip
Wooo hooo! I noticed share price going higher today and wondered if something was up. Volume didn't seem too high though.
Phillip
Funny, when I looked this morning, no shares had been traded. Someone woke up late.
Phillip
Good news. Approved by the governor? Do you have a link?
Thanks,
Phillip
Pappas resigned from the Board of Directors.
Phillip
It's out on SEDAR today.
Phillip
Thanks for the update. Hopefully they have their cost overruns solved as well.
Phillip
Energy is definitely a big question mark. Renewables such as solar and wind have the drawback of only producing power when the sun is out and wind is blowing. Solar has been great to reduce on peak production during the day but SDGE is changing those on peak hours presumably because of solar generation. Conventional power is still needed to produce at times when renewables don't produce. Biomass is the one exception to the rule. I like nuclear but its biggest risk is just politics. California is talking 100% renewables. Whether it's realistic time will tell.
Then there are the wildcards. We have completely stopped using our natural gas pumps at work because the cost has now shot up in excess of what electricity costs. Reason? So Cal Gas methane leaks forcing thousands from their homes.
Biomass is still a huge expense compared to coal and politically huggers don't like cutting down trees even though southern pine forests have exploded in size and electronic media is curtailing the need for paper products. Still capital expenditures to convert from coal to a completely different technology makes biomass look appealing.
Anyway long story short...I agree. Who knows what will win.
Phillip
My guess is that they are finding interest in their product, but unprepared for the actual costs and regulatory measures required to bring a project into construction. I've been in the land development business most of my career and the one thing that seems to be consistent is developers have rose colored glasses on and have an expectation for everything to go smoothly. They often stumble around for years putting out one fire after then next when it was a fire they could have been prevented if proper planning had been done. Then other things like the steel tariff could pop up and make a financial mess of things.
On a side note, the latest Port minutes from October say that Biomass is on hold (something we already knew).
Phillip
I'm not sure this is any news that the MD&As haven't already said but it's a press release today...
https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/468427702/biocoal-patents-ownership-transferred-to-biomass-secure-power-inc
Phillip
It's the age old problem of Engineer's Estimates being drastically lower than bid prices. The bids for construction projects I have seen in the last year are often twice what my estimate is. Materials are in high demand. Our steel pipe vendor says they are losing money because they hold their quotes for 6 months and by the time the purchase order is issued for fabrication their raw material costs are more than the quote that they provided. There was also a mad dash of people trying to buy foreign steel before the tariffs went into effect which drove up demand. Hurricane damage also caused an increased need for materials.
Phillip
MD&A is out on sedar.com... Here's the scoop...
"The Company has delayed ground breaking ceremony as cost estimate to build phase 1 came in far in
excess of preliminary budget. The Company along with EPC made the decision to defer some of the
scope of phase 1 into phase 2. Two of the major suppliers have been asked to resubmit budget using
new scope. We have heard back from one with a price reduction of approximately $15 million. We expect
to have second number in next couple of weeks which will allow us to proceed with current funding."
I think November will be a big month. I can feel it in my bones. Then again, it could just be the arthritis I've developed from waiting as long as I have. :) Anyway, wait is all we can do. One of the concerns of mine is the impact that steel tariffs have had. I have to think that outside of labor, steel prices are one of the primary costs this project will incur.
Phillip
Latest available minutes from the Port's September Meeting:
"Mr. Tyler further reported the following: 1) the principals of BioMass remain in contact with the Port;"
http://publicnoticeads.com/LA/search/view.asp?T=PN&id=350/10172018_25035867.htm
Phillip
May or may not be relevant, but the Port is approving a lease to a transportation logistics company. Three year term would seem to be consistent with construction of all phases if they are the ones bringing construction equipment and materials in. Just wishful speculation though.
http://publicnoticeads.com/LA/search/view.asp?T=PN&id=350/10172018_25035868.htm
Phillip
Nope. Lack of news on progress? Volume doesn't seem terribly high as if there was a devastating event. Honestly don't know though.
Phillip