Wellman Inc. has sold a PET resin and fiber plant in Darlington, S.C., to International Process Plants, a global reseller of manufacturing plants and machinery.
No purchase price was disclosed in the deal. The plant, which Wellman closed in November, has annual capacities of 550 million pounds of bottle-grade PET, 250 million pounds of amorphous PET and 550 million pounds of polyester staple fiber.
The site covers 760 acres and has 1.1 million square feet of covered manufacturing space.
Hamilton, N.J.-based IPP will assume $300,000 in monthly carrying costs for the site, as well as all environmental obligations.
IPP currently owns more than 100 used processing plants that are up for sale.
The list includes plants making high density polyethylene, suspension PVC, melamine and propylene feedstock.
IPP does not disclose the locations of the plants it is offering. Officials did say that IPP currently is under contract to sell a site that includes three specialty chemical plants and one pilot plant formerly operated by Celanese Corp. in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Fort Mill, S.C.-based Wellman exited bankruptcy in January, after selling off its recycling business. It closed the Darlington site and consolidated its remaining PET resin production in Bay St. Louis, Miss.
Wellman operates about 900 million pounds of PET capacity at Bay St. Louis, ranking as North America's fourth-largest PET maker based on estimated annual sales.
At an industry conference earlier this year, Chief Operating Officer Steve Ates said the firm “is in a very good position to move the company forward, with strong financial backing.”
Wellman filed for bankruptcy in February 2008, citing “substantial debt obligations” and “deteriorating business conditions.”
In late 2008, Wellman sold a massive recycling and fibers site in Johnsonville, S.C., for about $20 million to private equity firm J.H. Whitney & Co. of New Canaan, Conn., which now operates the facility as Wellman Engineering Resins.
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