Eastman Chemical's UK PET production site is being sold to Thailand's Indorama Holdings as part of a £47m (EUR65m) deal.
Indorama's purchase of Eastman Chemical's European purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and PET resin business includes facilities at Workington, Cumbria, and Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The combined annual capacity of the two plants is 340,000 tonnes of PTA and 350,000 tonnes of PET.
The Workington site, which has more than 230 staff, has produced PET for the packaging industry, including beverage and food containers, since 1988.
Indorama said it would become one of the top three PET manufacturers in the world when the acquisition completes in January 2008.
"Indorama is confident that this phase of consolidation in the European PET industry is the way to bring back returns in this otherwise lacklustre market," said chairman Aloke Lohia.
The acquisition, Indorama's third in the past nine years, will extend its existing European business, currently based at a greenfield site in Lithuania that opened last year.
The firm took over Siam Polyester in Thailand in 1998 and US-based StarPet in 2003. With the Eastman purchase and the completion of a new integrated facility at Decatur, Alabama, its PET capacity will reach 1.4 million tonnes a year.
Indorama said total capacity following the acquisition would increase by 20% to 2 million tonnes, boosting sales by around £500m ($1bn).
Source: packagingnews
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