Maryland Company Plans Huge Facility to Manufacture New Type of Wood
Published in the Baltimore Business Journal | February 7, 2024
A company creating a new type of wood with the strength of steel plans to build an 88,971-square-foot manufacturing facility in Frederick.
InventWood plans to move into its 5971 Jefferson Station Court headquarters by early March thanks to a $20 million grant from a U.S. Department of Energy program. The company will use the facility to start manufacturing its flagship product MettleWood in early 2025 and hire at least 50 to 60 employees. InventWood is currently located at the University of Maryland, College Park, where founder Liangbing Hu conducted most of the early research into how to turn normal wood into an strong construction material.
InventWood needs the new facility because the Department of Energy wants it to be able to manufacture 1 million square feet of MettleWood each year. CEO Josh Cable said he chose Frederick because of the access to transportation, a large labor supply and the ability to easily get wood into the factory from logging operations in Western Maryland and other rural areas.
