Woodchipper Gunns is selling its export woodchip terminal at the Port of Portland in western Victoria as it focuses on progressing its $2.5 billion pulp mill project at Bell Bay in Tasmania.

“There’s an orderly (sales) process happening,” a Gunns spokesperson said on Friday.

The spokesperson said Gunns had originally expected that the Portland facility would be used as a transit point for woodchips from the “green triangle” in Victoria and South Australia to be sent to feed the pulp mill in Tasmania.

However, Gunns now believed that there was a sufficient source of woodchips available in Tasmania.

“So the strategic benefit of the port is now less,” the spokesperson said.

“Also, Gunns is really going to be a pulp producer rather than a woodchip exporter.”

Gunns built a stockpiling and ship loading facility at the Port of Portland over 2009/10 at a cost of $24 million to support its plantation operations in the Green Triangle, on the border of South Australia and Victoria.

Gunns said in November 2010 that the port facility would be in a significant strategic position, with access to both Bell Bay in Tasmania and to the Asian market.

Gunns said in February, when it reported its financial results for the first half of the financial year, that market conditions for woodchips were expected to remain difficult while the value of the Australian dollar against the US dollar remained high.

Gunns has been in a trading halt since March 9 as it seeks more funds to pay off debt and support development of the pulp mill.

It last traded at 16 cents a share.