Materials firm Ineos Olefins & Polymers USA has made a major move into the North American high density polyethylene pipe market by acquiring WL Plastics Corp. for an undisclosed price.
Fort Worth, Texas-based WL operates more than 500 million pounds of annual pipe production capacity at plants in Kentucky, South Dakota, Utah, Texas, and Wyoming. An additional plant in Georgia is under construction. WL ranked 11th in Plastics News' most recent ranking of North American pipe, profile and tubing makers with annual sales of $340 million.
In a Nov. 1 news release, Ineos O&P USA CEO Dennis Seith said that WL “is well positioned to serve the growing North American pipe market and will complement Ineos's existing portfolio of olefins and polymer products.”
“We believe ownership under Ineos will enable WL to strengthen our position in the marketplace through upstream integration backed by the resources of a global company enabling the next phase of WL Plastics' growth,” WL CEO Mark Wason added in the release.
WL provides HDPE pipe to markets including oil, gas, industrial, mining, conduit, and municipal water and sewer. Ineos O&P is a unit of global materials firm Ineos Group AG of Rolle, Switzerland. Its North American assets include 1.75 billion pounds of annual HDPE production in LaPorte, Texas.
News of the deal for WL comes only a day after Ineos — through its Ineos Styrolution unit — announced that it was acquiring the global K-Resin styrene-butadiene copolymers (SBC) business of Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. and Daelim Industrial Co. Ltd. for an undisclosed price. That transaction includes the equity interests of K R Copolymer (KRCC), K-Resin SBC intellectual property and other assets related to the SBC business.